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How low does your salary need to go?

Hi all

I currently work Full Time as does my partner and as such we have a relatively high joint income. Just wondering if anyone could advise how low your joint salary needs to go before you start qualifying for benefits.

We have one little boy 19 months and don't qualify for anything at the moment.

Thanks

Kat

Comments

  • rogerblack
    rogerblack Posts: 9,446 Forumite
    About 60000, as a couple I think is the top limit - child benefit.
    WTC/CTC kick in a bit below this. and then you hit the thresholds for benefits like council tax benefit, and housing benefit considerably lower.

    Income support, or jobseekers would be _considerably_ less.

    DLA and other non-means-tested benefits do not have an income limit of course.
  • lizzybear_2
    lizzybear_2 Posts: 17 Forumite
    Apparently the threshold for child tax credit for a couple with one child is about £26000, it's a lot higher than this for the childcare element though.
  • BigAunty
    BigAunty Posts: 8,310 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    You can model different scenarios on the Turn2us online benefit planner. How much capital do you have? (savings, ISAs, premium bonds, shares, etc).

    A couple with kids are only required to work 24 hours in total per week (with one of them doing at leasts 16 of it) as the minimum criteria for receiving working tax credits. Therefore, perhaps the most effective way to maximise benefits is 24 hours of working at the National Minimum Wage. Until recently, it was only 16 hours employment in total per week but changed in April.

    Currently, some households are no better off if both parents work full time because of child care and transport costs, plus the steep withdrawal of benefits which is probably why there are more than 200,000 households with one parent working part time.

    However, this kind of disincentive to employment is supposed to be tackled under the move to the Universal Credit system which sees tax credits scrapped. Download the UC proposal paper from the DWP website to understand the future changes, though there is transitional protection and it will take up to 5 years to roll out fully.
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