Advice needed on a 6 hour a week contract

bingo87

I'm a long-time lurker and finally I have a question!

My 18 year old son is doing work experience at the moment, and working the maximum allowed of 29 hours per week.

He has been told after working free (just getting job seekers allowance) for the past 7 weeks he will be offered a full time contract after 8 weeks (the maximum time they are legally allowed to keep him on work experience).

Hurrah! But then they said the contract will be for just 6 hours a week.

They have said that he probably will work more than that - and he might actually still be working the 29 hours he has been doing the past 2 months.

A couple of questions - where does he stand when it comes to paid holidays? 6 hours a week translates to 3 paid days a year (or slightly over) - is that all he is entitled to, even if he is working 29 hours every week?

And how will it work when it comes to benefits - for example if he is only working 6 hours some weeks (on the NMW which is about £5 an hour for his age) then he is earning less than he would get if he was unemployed. Can he get the odd week topped-up by benefits if necessary?

Any advice welcome, with thanks.

lizzywig

I believe that you accrue holiday for what is actually worked. When I was in retail I had a 10 hour a week contract but usually worked between 35 - 45 hours a week. Subsequently I had a bigger holiday allowance than those who actually worked 10 hours a week.

Afraid I've never claimed benefits so don't know anything about them. Would he perhaps be entitled to working tax credits? Sure someone with more knowledge than me will come along.

98jdougl

To young to claim wtc, if I recall correctly however, if you work under 16 hours a week then you can get a JSA 'top-up' although don't hold me to that one, am sure someone with much better grounding will be along soon.

bingo87

Thanks, both, for your responses.

Poppa_G

Is it even worth getting out of bed for?

bingo87

Poppa_G wrote: »

Is it even worth getting out of bed for?

Ha! Exactly my thought! But if they don't top his hours up to 30 or so every week he will soon be looking for another job. It's his first job and they are very thin on the ground around here - local businesses prefer to use the free work experience kids, for some reason:mad:

They told my son they were going to offer him the job after the first week, but they are still keeping him on with no cost to them for the other seven weeks. That's how it goes.

dawnybabes

No idea on the benefits but if his contract it is for 6 hours a week then he technically they can just pay him holiday pay of 6 hours a week even of he has been working 30+ hours a week ...

bingo87

dawnybabes wrote: »

No idea on the benefits but if his contract it is for 6 hours a week then he technically they can just pay him holiday pay of 6 hours a week even of he has been working 30+ hours a week ...

That's what I was wondering - if it was some sort of employment scam that benefits the business to the employees detriment.

Doesn't exactly put them in the running for "best business as voted for by it's employees", does it?:D

So even if he does work full time he his holiday entitlement will be 3 days a year.:(

Stubert

I believe you need to have dependants or over 25 to receive the working tax credit, so I don't think he will receive that!

dark_lady

Stubert wrote: »

I believe you need to have dependants or over 25 to receive the working tax credit, so I don't think he will receive that!

Could this be another reason why the under 25s are having kids so early in life.

mildred1978

bingo87 wrote: »

That's what I was wondering - if it was some sort of employment scam that benefits the business to the employees detriment.

Doesn't exactly put them in the running for "best business as voted for by it's employees", does it?:D

So even if he does work full time he his holiday entitlement will be 3 days a year.:(

No, he'll be entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks per year. If he's working 6 hours per week he gets 5.6 x 6 hours.