reduction in hours issue!

abby1234519

xylophone wrote: »

But you chose to be a mother? Would you find the patience if for some reason Liam couldn't care for the child?

Well, yes because as a parent you have to. Liam is only here for a two and a half days a week (lives with his parents in a different town) so I usually am with Joshua most of the week.

I'm merely pointing out that mother isn't always best. Liam is perfectly capable of being the sole carer if he has to. And I am quite happy to go out and work. I'm not a career woman, I just trust Liam to be just as much of a parent as me. I can understand why men have this protective thing about woman not going out to work when they need to be a mother but I think Joshua has benefited from both nursery, plenty of daddy time and then plenty of mummy time...and then mummy and daddy time.

If he is upset and we are both in the room, you just don't know who he will crawl to. Really could be either of us. Whereas when my sister was a baby, she would crawl to mum because she saw mum 80% of the time and only saw dad at weekends really.

So going back to OP I don't think its wrong for the gentlemans wife to go and work even one shift to make up the hours

LizzieS_2

grummps wrote: »

I'm not disputing what the legal position is, but come on, and I'm a guy, the idea of making a woman go out to work with a baby of that tender age is nothing more than disgusting.

Were on earth are we heading for in this country?

No mum with a child under 5 should even be thought of as being ready for work unless she actually wants to. After age 5, yes mum could do a part time job as long as it fitted in with the school hours.


Call me old fashioned, but a child, before they go to school, needs their mum to be around and not some childminder or faceless nursery.

Me personally, I would register as self employed with HMRC, and work doing anything in order to make up the 24/30 hours a week.

I was not suggesting a woman should work when a baby is 2 weeks old. Many people do not know what age a baby has to be - OP did not give age of baby and could be under the impression women cannot work with say a 6 month old baby.

In this day and age your old fashioned values do not pay bills whatever their merit. I went back to work before my child was 3 months old due to circumstances beyond my control. In those days you did not receive anything other than child benefit and had to pay childcare fully out of your own pocket.

Even with chidcare provision these days it is still better to work hours around each other if at all possible.

Like others I can safely say there is nothing wrong with dad having caring duties as well as working.

xylophone

so I usually am with Joshua most of the week.

Then presumably you do find/have the patience so saying that you don't is inaccurate?

grummps

LizzieS wrote: »

In this day and age your old fashioned values do not pay bills whatever their merit. I went back to work before my child was 3 months old due to circumstances beyond my control. In those days you did not receive anything other than child benefit and had to pay childcare fully out of your own pocket.

Old fashioned? I don't think so. Taking responsibility for my family I call it.

The twin girls were born in early 1981, and my wife gave up work in late 1980.

As you say, there were no payments for childcare etc in those days.

I was starting up my own business when they were born and working anything up to 100 hours a week.

If we didn't have the money, we couldn't have it. Our first holiday was when the children were 10. In between working, and being with my family, I had to keep a car on the road doing all of the repairs myself, sometimes outside in the pouring rain.

Of course my wife could have gone back to work, but we both believed that being at home was more important.

You only have to ask the girls now what they thought of their childhood - they say that they hope to give their children what they had - plenty of time with mum!

banner188

allen35 wrote: »

If there's going to be overtime most weeks, can't you discuss with your employer the importance of having 24 hours.

Due to not meeting the 30 hour rule you need to inform HMRC of the COC.

You maybe able to average your hours over a month so for instance 23 hours for 3 weeks, 28 hours on week 4 in the cycle would average out at just over 24 hours per week.

Your initial award is based on 2011/12 tax year but you can give an estimate of current income.

If taking this route try to be as accurate as possible to avoid an overpayment or if you can manage you can stay on your current award and when you give your declaration next year you will receive any underpayment as a lump sum.

Do you rent, if so you may be entitled to Housing benefit/council tax benefit based on your lower income.


Another option to consider if renting is leave your tax credits as they are based on higher income from 11/12, this will increase possible Housing benefit as it is based on household income and receive a lump sum after the next tax year or inform HMRC of reduced estimated income to increase tax credits but this would affect possible lower entitlement to HB/CTB.

You need a benefit check based on both scenario's to to arrive at what's best for your household.

Good news, my employer may be able to offer me a 30 hour contract so we will be safe if that happens.

Just another quick question, if I choose not to inform tax credits about the drop in hours, will they owe us money when the year ends in april and would we receive a lump sum? Also, would they apply the £2500 income disregard to the lump sum at year end?
I thought all changes in circumstances should be reported to them?

cheers

zagfles

banner188 wrote: »

Good news, my employer may be able to offer me a 30 hour contract so we will be safe if that happens.

Just another quick question, if I choose not to inform tax credits about the drop in hours, will they owe us money when the year ends in april and would we receive a lump sum? Also, would they apply the £2500 income disregard to the lump sum at year end?
I thought all changes in circumstances should be reported to them?

cheers

You only have to tell them if hours drop below 30, if they're just dropping from 35 to 30 you don't need to tell them. You can tell them about your lower income if you want but you don't have to, if you don't need the extra money yet then may be better not to in case your hours increase again. You'll get a lump sum at the end of the year if they paid you too little, and yes there's a £2500 disregard for income falls so you'll only get extra if income drops more than £2500.