Would I get more benefits working 15 or 16 hours per week?

Busyizzy_2

Hi, I've recently returned to work after maternity leave 15 hours a week. However lots of people have been saying i will get more benefits if I increase my hours to 16 per week. I've been on the tax credits calculator thing which claims with me working 15 hours we get £40.72 per week in child tax credits but this would increase to £63.30 per week if i worked 16 hours a week. I then rang tax credits to confirm this but all they would say is that I wouldn't get more as the more you earn the less they give you. So now I'm totally confused over who's right and how many hours i should work. I live with my partner who works 30+ hours a week earning around 18 k a year. We have 2 children, rent privately and pay £38 per week childcare. We have never received any help with childcare, housing etc, due to our joint income. I earn £7410 a year if working 15 hours, or £7904 if I increase it to 16 hours. Can anyone shed any light on this as I'm totally confused. Many thanks in advance.

zagfles

Yes you will get more, because you need to both work 16+ hours to get childcare help.

If you work 16 hours you'll get 70% of the childcare costs paid so that's an extra £26.60 a week, but then your tax credits will be reduced by 41% of the extra income ie £3.90 a week so you're £22.70 better off overall.

Busyizzy_2

Thanks for your reply. That's what always confused me though, even when I worked more hours (24) before I had my second child we never received any help with childcare costs as we earnt to much to claim working tax credits and therefore, apparently, receive the childcare element. We just got the bog standard £40 odd a month then. You seem to know what your talking about though so I really hope your right :-)

zagfles

Busyizzy wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. That's what always confused me though, even when I worked more hours (24) before I had my second child we never received any help with childcare costs as we earnt to much to claim working tax credits and therefore, apparently, receive the childcare element. We just got the bog standard £40 odd a month then. You seem to know what your talking about though so I really hope your right :-)

With just the one child and working 24 hours you'd have probably earned too much. With 2 children and only working 16 hours you have an extra child element plus a lower income so that's why you'll get more now.

Technically - you won't actually receive any WTC or the childcare element of WTC, but because you become entitled to it by working 16+ hours, it'll increase your child tax credits! Yes it is confusing - but the bottom line is your award will go up as the calculators say.