Going back to work.....or can I????

Beckym

I am a single parent and after my youngest turning 5 in January, have the unfortunate pleasure of signing on every two weeks.
After job hunting for a few days, it was apparent that part time positions are virtually non existant, so changed my search to full time work.
Have been on a couple of interviews and been looking into child care.
As I have 3 children, the breakfast and after school clubs will cost £140 per week and I can expect up to 70% help with this.
However during the hols, child care can cost aprox £26 per day per child!!!!
The job I have applied for is £17k.
After making a call to the job centre for a better off calculation was told under NO circumstances should I work over 20 hours a week so that I can still claim my max in benefits.
I really want to go back to work and start standing on my own two feet without relying on benefits and hoping the childrens dad is going to help with the child care costs, which I know he doesn't have to (?)
Am I really going to be better of staying on benefits, waiting for a 16-20 hours a week job to materialise????
Thanks

Takeaway_Addict

If you don't start somewhere you could end up living a life of benefits for a long time.

There are plenty positives to working and recieving less money such as adult conversation, meeting new people, boosting confidence etc

Beckym

And they are exactly the reasons I want to go back to work, was just expecting a little more support from those supposed to be incouraging you returning to work not telling you to stay at home and carry on claiming!

Takeaway_Addict

Beckym wrote: »

And they are exactly the reasons I want to go back to work, was just expecting a little more support from those supposed to be incouraging you returning to work not telling you to stay at home and carry on claiming!

Ignore them

Cherry_Bomb

Seeing as you average out your childcare costs over the entire year you are presumably going to get more per month during term time that what the actual costs are going to be.

Save the difference to go towards the more expensive months.

No point getting annoyed with the benefit advisors. Ignore what they say and concentrate your time looking for practical solutions.

sammyjammy

Beckym wrote: »

After making a call to the job centre for a better off calculation was told under NO circumstances should I work over 20 hours a week so that I can still claim my max in benefits.

This is a little strange, there aren't any rules related to benefits where the cut off is 20 hours work. Did they actually do a better off in work calculation? (you would usually have a proper appt for this, well in my day ) It may well have been just an unprofessional off the cuff remark but if I had three children I would want to know for sure before I accepted the job. you could use the turntous calculator which will give you an estimate.

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx