Definition of "work less than 16 hours per week"

yopple1

My partner's hours have been reduced to 16 hours per week. 8-12 over 4 days. Therefore, because she does not "work LESS than 16 hours per week", she is worried she will not be entitled to any benefit. The grey area is that during each 4 hour shift, she has a 15 minute break, therefore actually works only 15 hours. Can anyone tell us where she will stand regarding a benefit claim? Many thanks...

AsknAnswer2

It would depend in what her contracted hours are.

If they are over 16 hours then she may be able to apply for working tax credit if she has children or a disability. If she does not have children or a disability then she'd need to be aged over 25 and working more than 30 hours a week to claim working tax credit.

For work 16 hours per week, she may be eligible for other benefits but it really depends on her circumstances.

[Deleted User]

legally she doesnt have to have a break when working 4 hours or less,perhaps she could asked to work thru her "break"and be paid for it?

fresian_cow

Is it a paid break? If it is then it would still count in the hours worked I believe.

anymeans

It's paid working hours. I have 30 minutes of unpaid break per shift so for example if I worked 8 hours over 2 days I would put I'm working 7 hours p/w, whereas if they we're paid breaks I'd put I work 8 hours p/w.

yopple1

Thanks for your speedy replies everyone.
She has not got an "officially" contracted number of hours per week, and after speaking to her employer this morning, they informed her that she does not get paid for the breaks i.e. she only gets paid for the 15 hours "worked" (the reason we didn't know this, was that she'd only been there a week, when he announced the reduction in hours - Good planning on their part??).
Anyway, I believe this means yes to housing benefit, but no to tax credits.
Thanks again for your input, lets hope she gets more hours soon. Until then it might be beans on toast for dinner. lol.
Yopple

DX2

yopple1 wrote: »

Thanks for your speedy replies everyone.
She has not got an "officially" contracted number of hours per week, and after speaking to her employer this morning, they informed her that she does not get paid for the breaks i.e. she only gets paid for the 15 hours "worked" (the reason we didn't know this, was that she'd only been there a week, when he announced the reduction in hours - Good planning on their part??).
Anyway, I believe this means yes to housing benefit, but no to tax credits.
Thanks again for your input, lets hope she gets more hours soon. Until then it might be beans on toast for dinner. lol.
Yopple

Housing benefit will also take your wage into consideration. Also the tax credits side of things unless you have kids/disability you need to work 30 hours per week, not 16.

NASA_2

For JSA the 7 day period is broken into benefit weeks and averaged over a period of time.