Paying tax for years - and no help now?

Legacy_user

I am planning to change my working hours from full-time to part-time, ie. about 9-15 hours a week.
I was trying to figure out what benefits I'd be entitled to and it seems that I won't get anything! For the previous two years my income was in the range of £40-45k a year. Now it will be about £16k (it's not fixed yet). I will be living in a two-bedroom house on my own, with a rent of about £595.
I was hoping I would get at least LHA (local rate is £120 max) but - no chance.
Is there really no help available to me? Would I have to be an unemployed disabled woman with ten children looking after her disabled parents to get anything in return for the huge amounts of tax and national insurance I paid? I find it absolutely unfair.

Hiddenidenity

PJ123 wrote: »

I am planning to change my working hours from full-time to part-time, ie. about 9-15 hours a week.
I was trying to figure out what benefits I'd be entitled to and it seems that I won't get anything! For the previous two years my income was in the range of £40-45k a year. Now it will be about £16k (it's not fixed yet). I will be living in a two-bedroom house on my own, with a rent of about £595.
I was hoping I would get at least LHA (local rate is £120 max) but - no chance.
Is there really no help available to me? Would I have to be an unemployed disabled woman with ten children looking after her disabled parents to get anything in return for the huge amounts of tax and national insurance I paid? I find it absolutely unfair.

Is there a reason your choosing to lower your hours/wage so much?

System

The reason is I'm planning to work on a project which has always been of my interest but because of long working hours (49 hours a week!, Sundays, bank holidays etc.) I could not focus on it. Of cours, by "work" I mean exploring and researching done on my own, with no formal employment or payment.

annie1975_2

Sounds about right to me. You get no help unless you have a houseful of kids..

oohes

PJ123 wrote: »

The reason is I'm planning to work on a project which has always been of my interest but because of long working hours (49 hours a week!, Sundays, bank holidays etc.) I could not focus on it. Of cours, by "work" I mean exploring and researching done on my own, with no formal employment or payment.

And why do you believe the tax payer should fund your lifestyle whilst you do this?

Hiddenidenity

So no medical reason etc?

Then no your choosing to put yourself in that position, for not a really valid reason to qualify the state subsidising you?

I don't see how thats unfair? Have a look at http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

But Im sure the benefits have a sanction for choosing to put yourself in that position Ie you wont get help even if you should for X amount of weeks

emsywoo123

OP do you have any savings?

System

And what is a valid reason for me subsidising a young woman who is perfectly capable of working but too lazy and wasting too much time having sex with whoever is to hand and then venting her frustrations about her meaningless life on me at my work? If it was up to me, such individuals would simply die to make place for more valuable memebers of the society. But we live in a benfits society, don't we? Thanks for your very helpful comment
I think I should give up working altogether - then at least I would get £71/week contribution-based JSA - for six months though.

BigAunty

How old are you? Are you single, do you have dependents? Does this work have no renumerative basis whatsoever? How much capital (savings, investments) do you have?

Because a single person who works more than 30 hours per week in self employment can qualify for working tax credits but not merely for being busy in a hobby - the criteria is that they are working in a renumerative capacity with the expectation of receiving payment, not just the hope of getting some in future. See the HMRC site on this.

Local housing allowance is based on income - low income means more HB. I'm not aware that the type of job (self employment) or the hours worked is a factor, I think it's just earnings.

Who have told you that you have no LHA entitlement or are you just having a right wing rant on a spontaneous basis?

You can identify the maximum LHA rate on the Direct Gov or local council website. The rent you pay, the size of the property is irrelevant to your entitlement - your age, income and the actual LHA rate for these are the main factors. Under 35s simply get a rate equivalent to a room in a shared house calculated on the cheapest third of local rents, for example - they can live in a mansion but that's what they get - and their capital and income may affect this.

Some benefits are based on income, some require a degree of contributions, some are capped if a person has capital over 6k and ruled out if capital exceeds 16k.

Nobody gets extra for being a good tax payer in the recent past, not even in the long term past. Tax and NI not a 'savings' account that you build up in order to dip into when a person decides to seek a better life/work balance. It's a safety net and not necessarily one that has a reciprocal relationship with contributions into the system.

You can identify your overall entitlement on the Turn2us online benefit calculator.

BigAunty

PJ123 wrote: »

...
I think I should give up working altogether - then at least I would get £71/week contribution-based JSA - for six months though.

No, the DWP discourages people's failure of work ethic by suspending JSA for up to 6 months for people who give up their jobs or who are sacked. I think they can get some kind of lesser hardship payment.

xylophone

I think I should give up working altogether - then at least I would get £71/week contribution-based JSA - for six months though.

You could be sanctioned (receive no JSA) if you voluntarily quit your employment?
I don't quite see why you should expect public assistance to pursue a personal project?
Surely if you want to "follow a dream" you should use savings accrued in the well remunerated years?