Working less than 16 hours a week while on IS

shellsuit

If you're on IS and get a job which is for 7.5 hours a week (lunchtime supervisor/dinner lady!) at a school), what happens, as I know you can't apply for Tax Credits if you are working less than 16 hours a week

Tigger36

They will ask you to declare your earnings each week, check your payslips and reduce your Income Support by the amount you earn. If you're single I believe that they ignore the first £5. If you have children then it's £10. So, for example - you earn £45 per week and get £60 per week Income Support. They will ignore the first £5 and take £40 per week off your IS. It's worth checking but this is certainly how it used to work. It's to encourage people to work over 16 hours so that they sign off IS.

shellsuit

Tigger36 wrote:

They will ask you to declare your earnings each week, check your payslips and reduce your Income Support by the amount you earn. If you're single I believe that they ignore the first £5. If you have children then it's £10. So, for example - you earn £45 per week and get £60 per week Income Support. They will ignore the first £5 and take £40 per week off your IS. It's worth checking but this is certainly how it used to work. It's to encourage people to work over 16 hours so that they sign off IS.

I get £47 IS a week, have 2 children, but the kids Dad gives me £10 a week (wow!) so there's my £10 allowance gone already.

I'm assuming it is minimum wage so :

IS a week = £47
Wages = £40 (plus a few pence)
Already get £10 a week from kids Dad

Tigger36

I'm sure they can't touch your maintenance so you can discount that £10.
If you are a Lone Parent then the earnings disregard is actually £20 so it is worth doing.
So, if your IS is £47 and you get £10 maintenance, that's £57. Your earnings are roughly £40 and you'll keep £20 of that. You should be £20 per week better off.

kelloggs36

shellsuit wrote:

I get £47 IS a week, have 2 children, but the kids Dad gives me £10 a week (wow!) so there's my £10 allowance gone already.

I'm assuming it is minimum wage so :

IS a week = £47
Wages = £40 (plus a few pence)
Already get £10 a week from kids Dad

Not being funny, but have you actually TOLD income support about the ten pounds that the dad gives you? It is a legal requirement that you ask the CSA to collect maintenance from your ex (or current partner if you don't live together) unless you have proved 'Good Cause' not to, so if you have a private arrangement, you are actually breaking the law and could be prosecuted. I am not 100% sure if the ten pounds he gives you will be disregarded unless it is collected in the proper way so you need to inform them in order that they are aware and can advise you of the correct procedures.

As a single parent you are allowed to earn 20 pounds without it affecting your benefits, but you will have to declare the earnings and they will deduct everything over the 20 pounds that you earn. If you are not a single parent, you can only earn 10 pounds per week (but it may actually only be a fiver, I'm not sure).

If the CSA collect the money from your ex and you get 10 pounds, then this may be on top of the money you are allowed to earn - I think as it isn't earnings, but you should check this for sure.

dollop

hi first of all i was in your postion not so long ago i was on income suppport and working as a dinner lady what happens is your allowed to earn 20 pounds per week anyway the rest they will reduce in your income support then your wages will go into the bank so say u earn for instace 45 pound a week they will take 25 quid out of yer income support,then at end of month youll get your full wage,its a good job to have i loved it.good luck.

Spendless

when I was a dinner lady last year it was quite a bit more than min wage. £6.20 an hour. Not that it makes any difference if you can only keep £20 (I also thought it was £20 a week you could keep plus the £10 maintainance).

Tax credits also used to allow you to add two jobs together to make 16 hours per week if you found you were better off on WTC. My friend was able to claim WTC on having an avon round. Not sure if they still do this, so best checking, just in case you consider it.

Somewhere like CAB can do a better off calculation for you.

shellsuit

kelloggs36 wrote:

Not being funny, but have you actually TOLD income support about the ten pounds that the dad gives you? It is a legal requirement that you ask the CSA to collect maintenance from your ex (or current partner if you don't live together) unless you have proved 'Good Cause' not to, so if you have a private arrangement, you are actually breaking the law and could be prosecuted. I am not 100% sure if the ten pounds he gives you will be disregarded unless it is collected in the proper way so you need to inform them in order that they are aware and can advise you of the correct procedures.

As a single parent you are allowed to earn 20 pounds without it affecting your benefits, but you will have to declare the earnings and they will deduct everything over the 20 pounds that you earn. If you are not a single parent, you can only earn 10 pounds per week (but it may actually only be a fiver, I'm not sure).

If the CSA collect the money from your ex and you get 10 pounds, then this may be on top of the money you are allowed to earn - I think as it isn't earnings, but you should check this for sure.

Everything is above board don't worry. IS know about the money and the CSA should be collecting the rest of the maintenance from him ~ but they haven't got around to it yet :rolleyes:

CSA actually wanted him to pay me direct, and for me to declare it to IS ~ no chance! I have a job getting £10 from him a week, let alone more.

I'll give the job centre a ring tomorrow morning and ask their advice about whether that £10 comes into it or not.

If it means I will end up with £20 a week, that's fine with me ~ every little helps