Few hours work, is it worth it?

Lindsay100

Hi, I hope someone can offer some advice. I made a decision not to return to my job after my maternity leave ended recently and will stay home with my two young children. They have offered me 8 hours a week for £100 whch I have to invoice them for and work out my own tax/ni/paye (haven't quite worked that bit out yet).

My main question is whether it's worth doing, my husband has a full time job and we get no other benefits than child tax credits but don't quite understand if I work/don't work do we get more less etc.

Can someone clarify how we might be affected.

Thanks very much, Lindsay

merlin68

You will get less tax credits as it goes on joint earnings.

DX2

Lindsay100 wrote: »

Hi, I hope someone can offer some advice. I made a decision not to return to my job after my maternity leave ended recently and will stay home with my two young children. They have offered me 8 hours a week for £100 whch I have to invoice them for and work out my own tax/ni/paye (haven't quite worked that bit out yet).

My main question is whether it's worth doing, my husband has a full time job and we get no other benefits than child tax credits but don't quite understand if I work/don't work do we get more less etc.

Can someone clarify how we might be affected.

Thanks very much, Lindsay

8 hours a week for a £100, I know what I would be doing!

HappyMJ

DX2 wrote: »

8 hours a week for a £100, I know what I would be doing!

And self employed too which means a few expenses can be offset against the income to reduce it further.... There would be no tax to pay and only a few quid each week for the self employment national insurance contributions. CTC's withdraw at a fairly low rate of either 39% or 6.67% on any of the remaining income after expenses.

Jowo_2

You can model the impact by using a benefit calculator, such as the one available at the Turn2us website.

You also have to consider expenses such as the fee to get an accountant to submit your tax return if you don't want to do this yourself. You should also look into the IR35 rules which cover the HMRCs regulations for 'disguised' employment to see if this is relevant. The HMRC target those who claim to be self-employed but whom they regard as PAYE employees, effectively pretending to be self employed when they are not truly self employed.

karenx

You wont get any help towards childcare with only working 8 hours also

Spendless

Would you need childcare for those 8 hours you work? Although you wouldn't qualify for childcare help via the tax credit system as you are working less than 16 hours, you could look into childcare vouchers. We did this to pay for childcare whilst I studied. You'd need to check to make sure it wouldn't have a negative effect on any tax credits or anything else you might claim. Also there is non-means tested funding for nursery the term after child's 3rd birthday, if your eldest is this age.

happy35

You will need to check the HMRC calculator but I have friends in your situation and although they lose some tax credit they are still better off.

I am unsure how it would work if you need to pay for childcare though, would you be able to do your 8 hours as and when so you could work when it was convenient for you?

Lindsay100

Thanks everyone, some really helpful stuff there. My youngest 1s 10months and oldest will be 3 in March and we have just started paying privately for him to go to nursery one day a week (for my own sanity and his!) so childcare vouchers may save us a couple of pounds till he gets some free hours in May this year.

I am working on a project basis so the IR35 should be fine, I also do a bit of other work so def considered self employed. I know too that business link might help me learn how to avoid paying an accountant and do my own returns, all a bit scary still!

It's some precious hours I struggle to find and just want to make sure I am not working for nothing, so thanks again.

flight747

Lindsay100 wrote: »

They have offered me 8 hours a week for £100

£12.50 per hour (I wish I had that job!)

Mojisola

Jowo wrote: »

You should also look into the IR35 rules which cover the HMRCs regulations for 'disguised' employment to see if this is relevant. The HMRC target those who claim to be self-employed but whom they regard as PAYE employees, effectively pretending to be self employed when they are not truly self employed.

If you only do work for one company, you will have problems convincing the HMRC that you are truly self-employed.