Working 16 hours or more

rayhool

I have been at risk of redundancy twice this year but I luckily survived, but the chances are in the next 12 months I will be made redundant.

My wife works 16 hours a week as this fits in with child care, If I was out of work would this effect our benefits as she would be classed as working full time? Would she be better working 15 hours a week instead?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Caz3121

Probably not
If you have made sufficient NI contributions in the applicable years you will be entitled to CB JSA irrespective of how many hours your wife works.
As a simple comparison, child tax credits for a couple with 2 children and paying no children with income last year of £25k, no-one working over 16 hours would get £1,910 but if one person works over 16 hours then the tax credits is £2,750...plus the additional wages

Fiver29

rayhool wrote: »

I have been at risk of redundancy twice this year but I luckily survived, but the chances are in the next 12 months I will be made redundant.

My wife works 16 hours a week as this fits in with child care, If I was out of work would this effect our benefits as she would be classed as working full time? Would she be better working 15 hours a week instead?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Why can't you take over the childcare and your wife ask for extra hours, rather than think about dropping hours and having the taxpayer pick up the bill? Should this event happen.

tottybum

Fiver29 wrote: »

Why can't you take over the childcare and your wife ask for extra hours, rather than think about dropping hours and having the taxpayer pick up the bill? Should this event happen.

Exactly, this just typifies what the benefit culture is all about.

Can I work less hours and will the state make up the difference?

rayhool

tottybum wrote: »

Exactly, this just typifies what the benefit culture is all about.

Can I work less hours and will the state make up the difference?

Before judging me I am just trying to get straight in my head what I would be entitled to, I have no plans to stay out of work so my wife would be unable to change her working hours at the drop of a hat where as I want to be able to work at the drop of a hat!

I have been in work for 21 years since the age of 14 (part time at this age of course ) and have no plans to start sponging off the taxpayer now!

Thank you for the initial reply anyway.

cosmic-dust

Rayhool this working under 15 hours per week really isn't going to help you at all. You will lose your WTC for a start. If you get made redundant you would get CBJSA and I'm pretty sure the wages your wife earns doesn't affect this, however after 6 months they will be taken into account.

zagfles

Yes you're almost certain to be a lot worse off if your wife goes down to 15 hours, I think the only case where you might be better off is if you'd get SMI (mortgage interest support), which has a nasty cliff edge if you work 16 hours. But you'd lose WTC as stated.

Also if you're getting childcare help through tax credits that will stop regardless as you both need to be working 16 hours.

rayhool

Thanks for the replies it's a big help.

We don't receive any childcare support. What about council tax is there any reduction in these payment?

Hopefully it won't come to this but I'm just planning for the worst just in case!

cosmic-dust

rayhool wrote: »

Thanks for the replies it's a big help.

We don't receive any childcare support. What about council tax is there any reduction in these payment?

Hopefully it won't come to this but I'm just planning for the worst just in case!

Nothing stopping you applying when the time comes better to apply and they say no/yes, than you not applying at all. Apply as soon as you become redundant don't wait.

BigAunty

You need to model your circumstances on the Turn2us online benefit calculator. Forum members can usually provide good general advice but to get specific figures, and to model different scenarios, you really need a decent benefit calculator that takes a lot more information from you than a person can usually give on a forum.

Sadly, you are right, there are definately certain scenarios where a household is better off on benefits by reducing hours or not working, as perverse as this is, but I doubt that a drop in a single hour of employment in the scenario that you've outlined will catapult you into bigger benefits.