Tax Credits and returning to work

patator

Can anyone advise? Please bear with me - dyslexia, terrible with numbers, plus neurological nonsense that means I get very easily derailed...I apologise in advance if I end up being a little confusing, or being a little confused! Please be gentle with me :think:

I won't go into all the boring background details, but the long and short of it is: I did have a single tax credits claim as a lone parent for over two years (after my now ex-husband ran off with his boss), and I was on income support as the helpful fella at the Jobcentre said I wouldn't realistically be able to work (even though I wanted to!) with such young children to care for on my own (plus the fact that my ex was doing all kinds of awful blackmail-ey type things with money and tenancy agreements and suchlike).

A year ago I went self-employed, so income support stopped and tax credits changed. I remained self-employed up until very recently (December), but that was a colossal failure...good experience, not good for my financial situation (or my health), so I've closed down. It's been a minefield trying to deal with updating tax credits, housing benefits etc since then...needless to say, I have an HMRC related headache.

When my fiance moved in with me we cancelled my claim and are currently waiting for the paperwork to set up a joint claim. My fiance is self-employed, not currently taking any drawings from the business (it's a fledgling company and they're waiting on receiving payments for invoices/need to recoup the set-up expenses before they start actually taking home any pay). It's getting confusing because I updated HMRC about the change in my circumstances (ending self employment), then a couple of weeks later told them that my fiance was moving in. My brain hurts!

Okay, onto the advice request

I'm struggling to meet commitments and, with three young children to care for, would need pretty specific hours if I return to work. My CV is good, I'm educated to degree level and I don't have problems applying for jobs - I would only need something on a temporary basis, as I'm waiting to go into a vocation (but I have to go through one of the longest selection processes the world has ever seen first, for good reason!) so I don't want to go into a role where employers would be hoping for somebody to stay for years just in case (I could be recommended for training in anything from a year to six years...or more...I just don't know!) I've found a couple of jobs locally that I know I could do no problem, with great hours, that pay a decent wage (cover supervisor in school, school receptionist...do you see a theme emerging?) but my fiance has pointed out that, from his calculations, if I go into employment I'll forfeit time with my children, will have to arrange childcare and will just cancel out the tax credits anyway - so it would leave us no better off.

Surely this can't be right? I'd love to be able to work to help my/our situation...but if it's true and me being in full time employment would just cancel out the tax credits and leave us with exactly the same amount of money, or less than we have now, with my youngest son being in childcare and my older two having to go to an after school club...well, surely this doesn't give much incentive for people to actually go to work? As I said before - please forgive me, I'm easily confused (and my fiance has never dealt with tax credits before so there's a chance he's getting tied up in knots and not understanding the systems/potentially making huge mistakes).

The closing date for the receptionist role is tomorrow, so I'm applying for that one anyway and will try to get an appointment with Jobcentre Plus so that they can do their clever 'better-off calculation' thing...but in the meantime I'd really appreciate your views!

Thanks for reading :T

BigAunty

patator wrote: »

...I've found a couple of jobs locally that I know I could do no problem, with great hours, that pay a decent wage ...but my fiance has pointed out that, from his calculations, if I go into employment I'll forfeit time with my children, will have to arrange childcare and will just cancel out the tax credits anyway - so it would leave us no better off.

Surely this can't be right? ... surely this doesn't give much incentive for people to actually go to work?

The kind of thing you point out is trying to be addressed with the move to the Universal Credit system.

You can model the scenarios of living on benefits and your fiances income, versus working yourself, on the Turn2us online benefit calculator.

Hopefully someone with knowledge of child care vouchers/subsidies will come along.

It is sometimes the case that a couple with kids are sometimes better off or has a similiar standard of living if one has a part time or full time low paid job than another household where the parents work longer or earn more. The entry into taxation, high child care costs, high transport costs and the steep withdrawal of benefits is one reason why some households consciously reduce their working hours or don't take steps to increase their income - they see their benefits disappear but don't see any great increase in their pay packet.

princessdon

you get 70% childcare paid if on a low income, sliding scale if not.

So either you earn a lot of money and CC is able to be paid or you'd not pay your whole wage in CC.

Without figures I don't know which applies.