WTC childcare - low hrs, high wage or variable hours

lauzellen

I am a single parent to a child of 2 and I finished a contract at the end of December and I've made my claim for IS, HB, CTB and informed tax credits etc.. I have an interview coming up for an hourly paid job... as yet I am unsure of the number of hours.. it is very well paid at £22 per hour. Would I be entitled to any help with childcare should the hours be below 16? Everything seems to stipulate 16hrs min and doesn't take into consideration of the wage earned - I can earn the same as someone on NWM in 10hrs a week but I can not afford to take the job if the hrs do turn out to be so low (it has not been specified) if I have no help with childcare. The hours may turn out to be variable as in full time one week and only 10 a next, maybe 16 the next and so on - what would happen in this case?

I am looking for work, and had been since before my contract ended but even Education is being hit hard at the moment and I preferably am trying to stay in education in some form or other as if outside of it finding employment back in the sector can be very hard.

Thanks for any help provided... i'm expecting the answer to be "no you can't get any help" which would be a shame as even if the hrs were that low i'd prefer to work.

karenx

No 16 hours is the minimum to be able to claim WTC and help with childcare costs. There is no other way around this.
The one thing you cant do is change your hours every week to suit your childcare costs. IE if you only need 2 days one week but 5 the next which is more money.

lauzellen

Thanks for the response.

Surely if I average 16hrs a week I can put my daughter in nursery full time and still receive 80% of the costs as help? I could be working mon, wed and fri one week and tue, thur and fri the next so it would be daft to not have her booked in full time..

dropintheocean

Good luck M'dear. I had to give up my lucrative but irregular/unguaranteed hours teaching in adult ed to work in an ill paid job on a fixed term contract because of the inflexibility of the system.

lauzellen

Sorry to hear that dropintheocean - I am hoping it doesn't come to that!

karenx

So you actually WANT to put your child in full time care even though you are only working part time......

lauzellen

Don't be so judgemental!!! I was asking as I MAY have to work different days and I WOULD have to specify the days for childcare so obviously that is not feasible. Although I would have to pay for full time childcare it does not mean she will be in full time and to be quite frank it's none of your business whether or not she was.. I MAY do supply teaching on the other days if I can get the work to suppliment the other work. Would you rather I sat on my backside and didn't try to get work? I'm sure you'd have something to say about that if I did too!

Don't worry on my part time wage i'd be paying tax and NI of someone who works full time given the earnings!

Floxxie

There is no requirement that the childcare has to reflect the hours that you work. An example given is someone who works nights can put their child into childcare during the day.

Floxxie

And don't forget that it is reducing from 80% down to 70% in April.

lauzellen

Thank you Floxxie - I am aware of the change from April. I shall have to see what I am offered on Thursday. Thanks to those whom were helpful and non-judgemental

Loopy_Girl

lauzellen wrote: »

Don't be so judgemental!!! I was asking as I MAY have to work different days and I WOULD have to specify the days for childcare so obviously that is not feasible. Although I would have to pay for full time childcare

To be fair I think that was the point that Karen was making....it actually won't be you that will be paying for a full time place, it will be through your tax credits sans 20%.

Most employers are fairly flexible nowadays and I think if you said you were a single parent then they should try to help you get regular days - so that it wsan't a full time place being paid for and your child was only in for part of the time.

Something is popping into my head that I am pretty sure I read about in here some time ago about a lone parent being questioned by the HMRC as to why she was claiming F/T nursery costs when she was actually only working P/T. Their thinking was that they were actually paying for a child to be in nursery when in reality the parent might not be in work. If I can remember I am sure that eventually they agreed to pay the 80% of 16 hours worth of nursery fees but that she had to cover the costs for the remainder of the fees to keep the place open. So I would strongly suggest that you go through your situ with the HMRC before you put a claim in.

With regards to the variable hours, it has to be 16 each week and hours can't be 'carried forward/back' so that it all evens out. My suggestion to you, if it looked like you would be averaging say, 13 hours a week, would be to do some S/E work - could be something as simple as Avon but so long as you can prove that you are consistently working 16 hours then you can claim the childcare element. The 16 hour rule is very specific and your income is not taken into consideration.