Working 20 hours and claim benefit?

Roskos

Hi guys and ladies,

I'm wondering if anyone can help me?

I've just finished a 6 month contract with an employer, and I've been offered 2 months work in a different department which will be 20 hours per week.

I'm 23, and living alone so bills to pay. We all know its hard out there to get a job in this climate, and its only going to get worse imo.

So to my question... Can I claim any benefits while working 20 hours? I know I may have to contribute to council tax, and housing benefit etc. Tbh, I may be worse off, but I want to stay in work and not have to sign on -- I've done it before and got me down.

Many thanks in advance

Roskos

miss_marsters

Hi, best place to get started is this website http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx to get a full picture of what you may get.

I believe that you cant get Working Tax credits as you are under 25. Also you may get help with rent and council tax benefit but if you are private renting you will only get the single room rate - and you would have to 'top up' the rent (assuming you already dont live in a shared house.

Unless you are disabled or have childre, i dont think there is much you would be entitled too

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along soon x

Roskos

miss_marsters wrote: »

Hi, best place to get started is this website

I believe that you cant get Working Tax credits as you are under 25. Also you may get help with rent and council tax benefit but if you are private renting you will only get the single room rate - and you would have to 'top up' the rent (assuming you already dont live in a shared house.

Unless you are disabled or have childre, i dont think there is much you would be entitled too

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along soon x

Thank you I checked, and I'm entitled to roughly £17.00 rent a week. LOL!

Surely, the government should help you a little more than that being as you're out there and working and not sitting at home with the "cant be bothered" attitude.

Pfft!!

Thanks again

scooby088

to get tax credits you need to work 30 hours per week or so i was told thursday.

Roskos

scooby088 wrote: »

to get tax credits you need to work 30 hours per week or so i was told thursday.

and you need to be 25

kingfisherblue

Could you combine the 20 hours with another part time job?

Russe11

The only way you can do 20hour weeks and get the state to give you most of your income is to breed, the more you breed the more your income will be.

If you under 35 and single and unemployed you have little choice but to find a job and try and compeate with the the breeders for jobs, but since employers realise they can be subsidised by the system thats quite a hard task to find somthing that will pay a comfortable wage unless you have a in demand skill set or can get a job in closed shop organisation.

The only real way a under 35 individual with out having a disability or registered blind can get anything out of the system is to be self-employed over 25 and do 30 hours a week then you should be able to get a tax credit of £51.84 a week if you only declare a min wage profit each year.

So long as you don't have high savings you can mix that in with claiming JSA, NEA, CTB and HB.

There is jobs local to me that are very attractive apart from the rates of pay. If I had to take one of these jobs £12-14k a year(the reality is the employer will want to start you on the lower figure) I would have to subsidise any thing I wanted to do beyond a very basic standard of living with either credit or savings(which you can't have lots of if your unemployed and want to claim).

If a couple with say 4 kids where to take one of these jobs, 20hours prorata their income would be, £7k, plus 14k child benefit, 3k family allowance, rent mostly paid 8k, ctb 1.5k lets just say £35k income... that would have to be £50k plus for a tax payer.

That in essence is why I belive the system can not work for the 25-35 unemployed, there is nothing as far as i'm aware for us.

Ok so I don't expect to get a £50k a year job, after all I don't have a family to look after or a dependant partner, but even if there was just a few £25k year jobs about, then i'd be able to work and support myself. I can't see employers paying £25k a year though when theres a work force out there that will happy to earn half that and the state will top it up.

Can someone point us in the right direction please?

yvonne13_2

I thought you didn't get any kind of help if you work more than 16 hours a week and under 25 years old, perhaps I'm wrong.

Roskos

Thanks for all your replies.

I learnt that I got full council tax and rent paid for me, dunno how but hey ho.

The system needs to change imo.

ohreally

Roskos wrote: »

I learnt that I got full council tax and rent paid for me, dunno how but hey ho.

The system needs to change imo.

Would you prefer "the system" to be changed and you subsequently got no council tax & rent paid or did you have some other change in mind?

Notmyrealname

Roskos wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies.

I learnt that I got full council tax and rent paid for me, dunno how but hey ho.

The system needs to change imo.

Changed to what? Personally I'm starting to wish that tax credits had never come to fruition as its bred a generation of people who seem to think they need to do everything they can to keep them rather than work more or get promoted so they earn more.