P/T work or benefits

Cate1976

With the new benefits rules I can't work out which option is best financially. I wish to make it clear that we would rather not be on means tested benefits but we are due to circumstances.

Family members are:
Married couple.
Twin girls age 5, one has special needs & is on Middle Care DLA, possibly getting Low Mobility added.

At the moment I am carer to our girl, getting Carers Allowance, my husband is currently off work after hurting his back. It is possible that he can go back working 10 hours a week £7.65 hour.

The problem for us is that if he does, we'll be worse off due to the threshold for Tax Credits going down from current £6k year to £3k a year.

Am I right in thinking that we'll be exempt from benefit cap due to our daughter being on DLA?

I confess to not having had time to read things in depth, I only know what was in the overview on BBC website.

I'm hoping to go to uni in 2017 to study BA in History and afterwards be in a job earning enough to mean we either don't need benefits to pay for rent, bills & food or if we are entitled to benefits, it'll be a lot less than it is at the moment.

Thanks to anyone who can help with this.

FBaby

This is not due to come into affect until next April. Are you saying that you expect your OH to still not be able to work more than 10 hours a week by then? That's plenty of time to get his back pain sorted.

Cate1976

Thanks for replies FBaby & blondebubbles.

He's going back to work on Monday with adjustments so he doesn't have to do any lifting above the 7-10kg max recommended by works physio assessment.

He thinks that due to the tax credits threshold, being in work 10 hours a week will make us worse off than if he doesn't work. He wants to be carer for our daughter & claim I/S top up.

I thought that the welfare reforms mean that if you work, you're better off under new rules than current rules even if you're only working part time.

We only get Child Tax Credits in case this makes a difference.

shegirl

The tapering threshold will be £3850. He'll only be earning £3978. With the tapering next year that will remove £61 a year in tax credits. Not much is it?!! Certainly nothing to worry about, and maybe next year he'll be working more than 10 hours!!


Oh, and of course, only child tax credits, so I believe the tapering point is a lot higher?

Cate1976

Thanks for replies shegirl & blondebubbles.

shegirl: It's unlikely that my husband will be working more hours as he's limited to what work he can do due to prolapsed disc in his spine. The op to fix it has 10% chance of working, if it doesn't work he'd be in a wheelchair.

blondebubbles: I read on another thread that CTC threshold is going to be £12125 so we won't be impacted.

Next thing to do is get it confirmed that the Income Support figure given by entitled to website last night is accurate. It said £30.85 week.

Due to the way my husband's employer pays wages, the amount he gets varies each month. Will Income Support pay us based on contracted hours or insist on 2 month averages? The latter will cause over & underpayments & we don't want to be hit with £50 penalty on overpayments due to system not being able to cope with benefit cycle & works pay dates & periods not matching. This happened when my husband first got the job & was claiming top up via JSA (daughter got DLA after my husband got the job).

tomtontom

There are plenty of jobs that are not weight bearing. Can he not look for something more suitable, or he stay home with your daughter (is she not at school?) and you get a job?

Cate1976

We live in a rural area & he doesn't drive, buses to places out of town are daytime only so he really needs something within walking or cycling distance. He doesn't have GCSE's either but does have Entry Level Maths & English, think they're equivalent to Grade E at GCSE. Our local Tesco was advertising jobs recently for a variety of roles & every single one wanted GCSE English & Maths at grade C. I'm doing Access course in September which will be 15/16 hours week including private study, maybe more. We are going to look for job with more hours for him and I'm planning on going to uni in 2017, career I want to get into has opportunities locally & I have driving licence.

tomtontom

Cate1976 wrote: »

We live in a rural area & he doesn't drive, buses to places out of town are daytime only so he really needs something within walking ir cycling distance. I'm doing Access course in September which will be 15/16 hours week including private study, maybe more. We are going to look for job with more hours for him as I'm planning on going to uni in 2017.

Can't be that rural if you can manage to get to college/ university?

You have put forward all the reasons why you cannot work more hours, you need to change that focus to what you can do. How do your neighbours get to work, is there an after school club for the children? Most families have at least one parent working full time, I can't see why you should be any different.

WestonDave

To be candid I'm not sure your stated desires to be off benefits stack up with your other comments.


What you seem to be saying is that you'd like to be off benefits provided that doesn't impact on 5 years tax payer funded study for you and doesn't involve your OH learning to drive and/or getting some decent GCSE's.


Taking your OH - at present he is going to be working 10 hours per week which with you doing the caring and a normal working week being 37 hours leaves him a lot of time to improve his employability - driving lessons, Maths GCSE etc.


Alternatively you accept that he isn't employable so takes the carer role whilst you use your employment skills to bring in money. However that means giving up the dream of going back to Uni. There are other (longer) ways of getting a degree if that career is what you really want, whilst really wanting to be self supporting.

beecher2

What career is it you want to get into? Will you be fully qualified by 2020? I have a History degree and most jobs required a further post graduate qualification. Could you do the degree through the OU and work at the same time?

Sounds like you need to weigh up the pros and cons of becoming qualified now and waiting until your children are older.

Cate1976

Due to finances, I need to be studying my degree full time to get the finance to do it. OU isn't possible. To get to Access course, I'm probably going to borrow Mum's car or use the bus, there is a service from where college is to a town 10 miles away that runs till late at night. From where I live, I can get bus to uni and it drops off at the end of the road leading to uni. Last bus at night leaves the city uni is in at around 7pm so that's not a problem. I've researched it & there are jobs available in the career I want to do.

My husband being carer to our daughter & me looking for work is something we are considering doing. If I see a job advertised that fits my skills & doesn't clash with college hours then I will apply for it but no guarantees I'd get it as I do struggle with interviews. It's worth mentioning that I do have Asperger's Syndrome, although it's relatively mild, it does impact on interview skills. It has been suggested that I should apply for PIP but I'm reluctant as that means getting more money from the state. If I go to uni & get a job afterwards, then I'll not only be repaying the student finance but would also via taxes be repaying what we've received in benefits in recent years. If I don't go to uni, then I'd be stuck in minimum wage 0 hour contract jobs the rest of my working life & I'd rather get my degree & earn enough to repay what we've received in benefits over the years.

Where I live there's an organisation that helps people with Asperger's in lots of things including interview skills & the uni I want to go to has a lot of support available as well.