working tax Now working tax credits stopped will my housing benefit rise?

relhuk · 3 June 2013 at 4:04PM

Hi all,
I was working 26 hours/week but now that has reduced to 21 (again). my WTC will now cease as I am not working 24 hours/week...(Who works a 3 hour job?). Any way my question is will my Housing benefit payment rise now my income has reduced significantly because of WTC stopping? If so will it rise in proportion? cheers guys.:(

zagfles · 3 June 2013 at 4:38PM

Yes HB will rise, probably by 65% of the WTC loss (HB has a 65% taper on net income).

zzzLazyDaisy · 3 June 2013 at 4:43PM

Just to say that you can top up your paid employment with self employment. So if, say, you do some self employed cleaning/ironing/gardening, or even if you sell on ebay as a business, provided you spend 3 hours a week at it, this will be enough for you to maintain your tax credits (you don't have to clear NMW for the self employed part of your hours, although this is due to change when UC comes in).