Will we be entitled to any more benefits?

falko89

In June my contribution based JSA stops as my partner earns £108 PW working part time, We get housing benefit of around £105 pw, child tax credit of £129 pw and child benefit of £188

So a total of, £1556 pm down from £1823

EDIT** Them numbers I thought looked very high but are indeed correct, If I was working full time on min wage 40hrs pw i'd get £1748:eek:

HappyMJ

Yes you can apply for income based JSA. You will get £111.45 p/w less your partners wage of £108 plus a disregard of £10 so you will get £13.45 per week. As you then get a means tested benefit you will then the maximum rate of HB. You can also get the maximum rate of CTC's.

falko89

HappyMJ wrote: »

Yes you can apply for income based JSA. You will get £111.45 p/w less your partners wage of £108 plus a disregard of £10 so you will get £13.45 per week. As you then get a means tested benefit you will then the maximum rate of HB. You can also get the maximum rate of CTC's.

Thanks for this, the shocking thing here is that we are better of with me not working, something badly wrong with this system surely

Soniclord

falko89 wrote: »

In June my contribution based JSA stops as my partner earns £108 PW working part time, We get housing benefit of around £105 pw, child tax credit of £129 pw and child benefit of £188

So a total of, £1556 pm down from £1823

EDIT** Them numbers I thought looked very high but are indeed correct, If I was working full time on min wage 40hrs pw i'd get £1748:eek:

Have I missed something?

Just added up your figures of,

£108 p/w your partners wage
£105 p/w housing benefit
£129 p/w child tax credits
£188 p/w child benefit

How many kids! Lol.

Anyway that all added up to £530 a week which every 4 weeks is £2120 so where did you get the figure from of £1556 per month, down from £1843 per month, as that figure I got from adding up all that you get is every 4 weeks (28 days) so not even a month!

HappyMJ

falko89 wrote: »

Thanks for this, the shocking thing here is that we are better of with me not working, something badly wrong with this system surly

If you were working and earning as you say £1,748 between you then you would also get top-up benefits such as housing benefit and child tax credits. You would also get working tax credits. It's not all bad...but yes generally most people aren't that much better off when taking into account the cost of getting to and from a workplace.

With 3 children you can earn up to £38,825 per year (£3,235 per month) and still get some form of benefits.

HappyMJ

Soniclord wrote: »

Have I missed something?

Just added up your figures of,

£108 p/w your partners wage
£105 p/w housing benefit
£129 p/w child tax credits
£188 p/w child benefit

How many kids! Lol.

Anyway that all added up to £530 a week which every 4 weeks is £2120 so where did you get the figure from of £1556 per month, down from £1843 per month, as that figure I got from adding up all that you get is every 4 weeks (28 days) so not even a month!

Yes, child benefit is 4 weekly. Weekly it's £20.30 for the first, £13.40 for two and three. Add and multiply by 4 weeks and it's £188.40 every 4 weeks.

falko89

Soniclord wrote: »

Have I missed something?

Just added up your figures of,

£108 p/w your partners wage
£105 p/w housing benefit
£129 p/w child tax credits
£188 p/w child benefit

How many kids! Lol.

Anyway that all added up to £530 a week which every 4 weeks is £2120 so where did you get the figure from of £1556 per month, down from £1843 per month, as that figure I got from adding up all that you get is every 4 weeks (28 days) so not even a month!

3 kids, child benefit is £188 a month not p/w

falko89

HappyMJ wrote: »

If you were working and earning as you say £1,748 between you then you would also get top-up benefits such as housing benefit and child tax credits. You would also get working tax credits. It's not all bad...but yes generally most people aren't that much better off when taking into account the cost of getting to and from a workplace.

With 3 children you can earn up to £38,825 per year (£3,235 per month) and still get some form of benefits.

Yes getting to and from work thats another thing I never thought about, I want to work but this system is just wrong, its not that benefits are to high as we are scraping by, its wages are to low.

HappyMJ

falko89 wrote: »

Yes getting to and from work thats another thing I never thought about, I want to work but this system is just wrong, its not that benefits are to high as we are scraping by, its wages are to low.

Wages are too low but the marginal deduction rates are too high making it just not worth working. If I worked 1 extra day a week and increased my earnings by £100 I would get to keep £4 to use on bus fares to get to/from work. Therefore at the end of an additional 8 hour shift I would not be better off at all. So why do it? Hopefully, universal credits will make the calculation better and make it worth working.

Soniclord

falko89 wrote: »

3 kids, child benefit is £188 a month not p/w

I was going to say that's a lot of kids if it had have been per week! lol.

I only thought it was per week by the way based on the below, the bit that sayd child tax credit of £129 pw and child benefit of £188, as it was all once sentence I didn't spot it didn't say p/w at the end...

falko89 wrote: »

We get housing benefit of around £105 pw, child tax credit of £129 pw and child benefit of £188

So a total of, £1556 pm down from £1823

BigAunty

£389 per week, then due to the correction with child benefit which are around £47 a week (not 188) so overall that's £1685 per month (not £1556, did you just round down each month to a 4 week period in your calculation?).

No council tax discount, then?

Does the child tax credits include working tax credits or are they not applicable now because it looks like your partner perhaps works 16 hours a week whereas WTC is now going to canned for couples with children who work less than 24 hours. Can she not find another 8 hours in order to qualify for WTC.

Of that, you actually get £284 as disposable income in your hand, with nearly two thirds of that from benefits rather than employment.

You really need to model the impact of future employment income on the Turn2us online benefit calculator rather than just assume that your benefits get completely wiped out if you take a job, though the withdrawal will probably be steep.

Also, transport costs to work are a fact of life (though obviously a deterrent to those who feel their income is broadly similar on benefits when they don't work.).

The move to the Universal Credit system is actually planned to make those in employment much better off than those on benefits compared to nowadays when there is simply no point for households to take a full time job or have the second adult in employment.

While you've pointed out that your standard of living may not be much better in employment despite the loss of JSA (but you really need to calculate this properly), there are lots of households who couldn't bear to be 'idle' or want to set an example to their children, plus loads of households where two adults are in employment because they simply don't know that they could trouser so much in benefits if they reduced their hours significantly, saving transport and childcare costs, too.

I hope, OP, you can see I am also pointing out system flaws, not flaws in the claimants.