Cutting hours while on Universal Credit

shemster

Hi,
I currently work full time and my wife is a stay at home mum to our one year old daughter.
I work between 40-45 hours per week mon-sat.
We receive £972 pm in UC

I just wanted to know if there will be any consequences in regards to universal credit if I reduce my working hours to about 30hrs a week.
Namely, will they question why I have cut hours and refuse to increase our uc payment?

The reason I want to work less hours is to attend college 1 day a week.

Any advice will be appreciated.

neilvw

I would speak to your job coach about this. It might just be acceptable for a limited period if you are attending training/education.

Icequeen99

Do you get paid above minimum wage for each hour? If so, it might be that 30 hours would still meet your conditionality threshold.

IQ

neilvw

Icequeen99 wrote: »

Do you get paid above minimum wage for each hour? If so, it might be that 30 hours would still meet your conditionality threshold.

IQ

35 x NMW (or NLW) is the conditionality threshold, yes? Deliberately reducing earnings might fall foul of this:

Deprivation of earned income
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/618962/admh3.pdf (page 26)

Even if the OP would still be meeting the conditionality threshold by earning the equivalent of 35 hours x NMW, it could be problematic.

This is why I suggest talking it through with the job coach. If the job coach is satisfied that increasing entitlement to UC was not a "significant reason" for the hours cut and hence earnings cut, perhaps because it is clear that the OP wishes to undertake training or further education to improve his earnings potential in the longer term, then it might be OK.

Icequeen99

neilvw wrote: »

35 x NMW (or NLW) is the conditionality threshold, yes? Deliberately reducing earnings might fall foul of this:

Deprivation of earned income
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/618962/admh3.pdf (page 26)

Even if the OP would still be meeting the conditionality threshold by earning the equivalent of 35 hours x NMW, it could be problematic.

This is why I suggest talking it through with the job coach. If the job coach is satisfied that increasing entitlement to UC was not a "significant reason" for the hours cut and hence earnings cut, perhaps because it is clear that the OP wishes to undertake training or further education to improve his earnings potential in the longer term, then it might be OK.

I think that's reasonable enough, i personally think they would have a hard time providing deprivation in this particular case but no harm in having a conversation with the work coach first.

IQ