Tax credits and 30 hour rule

spidermaaaan

I am starting as a salaried School Direct trainee teacher in September. My contract stipulates 27.5 hours work a week, but I have been informed by the school I will be working 60 hours a week when including lesson planning and studying. School is 30 minutes drive away.
I have been self employed for years and I am allowed to count travelling to customers' premises and lesson planning as hours worked. However when I phoned HMRC they said as an employee I am only able to count the hours on the contract.
Is this correct? Seems the tax credit system is set up better for self employed? If this is correct I will just do 2.5 hours tutoring a week to make up my hours.

Darksparkle

Travelling from home to your place of work is ordinary commuting and not business travel. That is the same for both the employed and self employed. The difference is many self employed place of work is home and they then travel to clients.

If your employment will not pay at least 30hrs then yes you'd need to find additional paid work to cover it.

spidermaaaan

I will do 2 hours a week tutoring then to make up the hours.
Thanks a lot!

nannytone_2

2.5 hours.

you will need to register with HMRC for this self employment and pay tax on the income

andrewmp

spidermaaaan wrote: »

I am starting as a salaried School Direct trainee teacher in September. My contract stipulates 27.5 hours work a week, but I have been informed by the school I will be working 60 hours a week when including lesson planning and studying. School is 30 minutes drive away.
I have been self employed for years and I am allowed to count travelling to customers' premises and lesson planning as hours worked. However when I phoned HMRC they said as an employee I am only able to count the hours on the contract.
Is this correct? Seems the tax credit system is set up better for self employed? If this is correct I will just do 2.5 hours tutoring a week to make up my hours.

How much do you earn as a salaried trainee teacher? If you're single you won't be entitled to working tax credits if you're earning over about £13.5k. If you're a couple then it's about £18k. Obviously it's different if you or your partner is disabled, but then again the 30 hour rule is a bit different then too.

konark

Teachers only work 22-24 hours a week officially. Unofficially it's more like 50-60 when you factor in lesson-planning, marking, after-school meetings, parent evenings etc.Then there's the long holidays when teachers don't work at all. Surely HMRC recognise that the working pattern for teaching is different to most other jobs, and the number on the contract is just a minimum..

marliepanda

konark wrote: »

Teachers only work 22-24 hours a week officially. Unofficially it's more like 50-60 when you factor in lesson-planning, marking, after-school meetings, parent evenings etc.Then there's the long holidays when teachers don't work at all. Surely HMRC recognise that the working pattern for teaching is different to most other jobs, and the number on the contract is just a minimum..

Every contract I've had for FT teaching is 32.5 (6.5 hours a day)

22? 24? The kids are there 25!!

Darksparkle

konark wrote: »

Teachers only work 22-24 hours a week officially. Unofficially it's more like 50-60 when you factor in lesson-planning, marking, after-school meetings, parent evenings etc.Then there's the long holidays when teachers don't work at all. Surely HMRC recognise that the working pattern for teaching is different to most other jobs, and the number on the contract is just a minimum..

It's not about the contract, it's about what you are paid to work. Many people are paid to work more than their contracted hours.

I would have thought 25 was min. When I was at primary it was 9-3 with one hour lunch and secondary 9-3.30 with 50min lunch.

The holidays are irrelevant, all term time workers are considered working their normal hours all year round. It's not about the occupation.

I highly doubt there are that many teachers claiming WTC only anyway as the income is likely to be well over the threshold.

teddysmum

WTC requires a salary of £13000 or less.


I just looked up this earn as you learn course (didn't know such existed) and the website says that some subjects earn a salary of £25000, so others are unlikely to earn as little as £13000, making WTC entitlement unlikely.


My last part time teaching job was in FE, where I was paid 2.5 hours per 2 hour teaching session, with the understanding that the extra 30 minutes were to be spent helping students on an individual basis and that the high hourly rate covered the time needed for preparation. My official employment was for 7.5 hours on 3 sessions.