Anyone else afraid of doing overtime because of effects on benefits?

chocdonuty

Don't get me wrong, If I can do overtime to help out I will but the concequences are just a huge pain in the backside!
Just to note, this is for housing benefit, the tax credits I have no problems with whatsoever and I work 17hrs a week contracted and on the odd occasion up to 24 but have stopped this now, it hasn't best pleased the boss but It's caused me so much hassle it's not worth it.

I have previously taken every payslip to the council office for them to calculate my new benefit which takes usually anywhere from 20 mins to an hour, not including waiting time.
If I've done overtime then they class it as an overpayment and calculate the next payment on the hours done in the previous month so... If I do say 100 hrs one month (just for ease of calculations) I will get benefit as if I was getting 100hrs pay the next month even if I only get say 50hrs pay, which leaves me short, then the next month, they recalculate it again.

Any overpayment they claw back and currently I have 4 repayments, one of them was because some daft sod calculated my pay as monthly not 4 weekly and screwed everything up.:mad:
When I worked things out I was no better off working extra anyway as benefits basically dropped as much as my wages rose so didn't see the point of doing more.
I have no idea how they work things out, it just seems a messed up system and the sooner I can do full time work the better but at the moment I can't due to childcare being almost non existant for my daughters age (9) plus no more permanant hours are available at my place of work.

grrr, rant over!
but is anyone elses local council this difficult and love the paperwork so much?

Dunroamin

Working 24 hours a week is hardly doing overtime!

mynameistallulah

Dunroamin wrote: »

Working 24 hours a week is hardly doing overtime!

But it's my human rights, innit.

OP, what you are describing does not leave you "short" because you will have the money from your overtime the month before.

kerrypn

:mad:

This is the problem, right there, hardly promotes hard work does it?

chocdonuty

24 hours is overtime if you are contracted to do 17

I'm just ranting really as the system my council uses just doesn't seem to work well at all especially when it comes to working out my finances because if I have no idea how the council work things out then I don't know how much I will get and therefore how much rent/tax I need to pay. ect ect.

However oddly enough the council tax calculations seem to be simple enough and are worked out a lot easier and quicker if my wages vary.

Cate1976

I was in same situation with Income Support back in November, after I'd done extra hours, they said they were taking £40 week off me. i went in and said that I'd been told ages ago that if I had a month where I'd done extra hours, that my earnings could be averaged out over a longer period of time. I had to do a bit of persuading, explaining that due to having children, I needed my earnings averaged out. I asked them to take my contracted hours and add some on. They agreed to do this and averaged my earnings out over a 6 month period. I can't remember what HB has down for my earnings but even if it's my contracted, we're still well below the applicable amount for us.

Could you ask the council to do the same for you? I'm sure that HB regs allow this. The other option which might be easier is that when you get paid for overtime hours, put the money into a seperate bank a/c, maybe an instant access savings account. That way, when your hours go back down, if council haven't finished reassessing your benefit before rent is due, you'll still have enough money to pay your rent.

As for council working out your benefit based on monthly earnings rather than 4 weekly, I'd make sure that when I next go in they note that pay is every 4 weeks. If it happens again then complain.

skintandscared_2

Am I missing something here? Surely the solution, which causes you absolutely no hassle whatsoever, is to permanently work the extra hours and not claim any benefits?!

mickey54

:T

skintandscared wrote: »

Am I missing something here? Surely the solution, which causes you absolutely no hassle whatsoever, is to permanently work the extra hours and not claim any benefits?!

:T:beer:

dktreesea

skintandscared wrote: »

Am I missing something here? Surely the solution, which causes you absolutely no hassle whatsoever, is to permanently work the extra hours and not claim any benefits?!

If only these kinds of arrangements were permanent. That's not really what happens though with overtime, is it. You only get it if extra work from the company comes along. You can't predict it and you have very little notice, usually, that overtime will be on offer.

enabledebra

When people are trying to get by on a small income the disruption and uncertainty of benefit income can be devastating - it's not a reluctance borne of idleness, it's a real concern for the basic security that we all need to know our roofs and food will be there. Benefits take such a long time to be resolved it's not suprising people take this action. I know 3 ex welfare rights advisers who after being made redundant, due to current cuts have decided, VERY sensibly, against irratic income from employment. For those who think UC will sort this out-:rotfl: read the regs

[Deleted User]

Well this is exactly how Universal Credits is going to work when RTI comes in it's going to allegedly re adjust with each pay packet.