Is She Better Off Doing 16 hr work

skorpio555

hi
question for my ex wife ( we are separate and i live away from her ) she is single parent living with our daughter who is 8 years old, she also lives with 2 sons both 18 year old twins from her previous marriage.

she is now in receipt JSA - £73.00 weekly or thereabouts.
child benefit - £22 a week
child tax credits i am not sure ?
she gets her total housing benefit paid for which is £109 per week

she has hope of starting new job and i need ask the question for her - is she better of working ? doing 16 hours or 8 hours per week based on the info i have given you . thankyou

PS.....i hope to get her to CAB but they are full up untill next week and this employer wants to offer her a start pretty soon on a P/T basis

FBaby

Better off working? What's the alternative, staying on JSA forever, hoping to never be pressured as to why she is still not getting a job? Why would she even question it? She would be better off working as many hours as she can do, not the minimum she can whilst claiming as much as possible, especially as it sounds like she won't be able to claim for her eldest for much longer.

Darksparkle

I assume given the level of child benefit she receives that the 18 year olds are. Onlonger in full time non advanced education?

If only claiming for one child, she!!!8217;ll currently get CTC of approx £64 per week.

Why is she restricting herself to 16hrs?

If working 16hrs on nmw JSA would stop and she!!!8217;d get working and child tax credits of £140 per week plus her wage of £120 per week.

Can!!!8217;t tell what impact that would have on housing benefit.

pmlindyloo

First of all if your figures are correct on the child benefit then it seems that she is no longer claiming for the 18 year old twins. What is their situation? Are they working/claiming benefits/ still in full time non advanced education?

I am presuming they are claiming JSA/UC as she is receiving full HB and not having a non dependent deduction applied.

https://www.tameside.gov.uk/housingbenefit/nondependentdeductions

As a single parent she will be better off working at least 16 hrs a week as this will entitle her to working tax credits. This will affect her HB/CT claim so it is possible that she may not be that much better off depending on travel costs etc.
Hopefully the older two will get jobs soon and contribute to the house hold.

Presumably she is receiving child support which would not affect any benefits.

She can put her details into a benefit calculator https://www.turn2us.co.uk to find out what she may be eligible for and also go to CAB for a Quick Benefit check.

Certainly on 8 hrs a week she would be worse off, I believe, since if she is on minimum wage her earnings would not be more than her JSA. However, if only 8 hrs were offered then she could remain on JSA and would be better off by £5 a week which they 'disregard'. (again travelling costs may make this worse) But she would still continue to receives class 1 NI credits.

The other thing to note is she refuses a job she could well be sanctioned as regards her JSA if did not have 'good reason' for not taking up the job offer.

Spendless

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Certainly on 8 hrs a week she would be worse off, I believe, since if she is on minimum wage her earnings would not be more than her JSA. However, if only 8 hrs were offered then she could remain on JSA and would be better off by £5 a week which they 'disregard'. (again travelling costs may make this worse) But she would still continue to receives class 1 NI credits.

Has this been changed in recent years? Once upon a time single parents could keep £20 of earnings and remain on JSA, if you weren't a single parent it was £5 you could keep.

pmlindyloo

Spendless wrote: »

Has this been changed in recent years? Once upon a time single parents could keep £20 of earnings and remain on JSA, if you weren't a single parent it was £5 you could keep.

No, you're right. Sorry, was quoting for a single person.

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/jobseekers-allowance-jsa

skorpio555

she is entitled to take advantage of the government system !!!
also, she is entitled to work only P/T if she so wishes !!!

FBaby

Are you sure you are separated? You seem very invested in making sure she get maximum benefit money. Why do you care?

NeilCr

FBaby wrote: »

Are you sure you are separated? You seem very invested in making sure she get maximum benefit money. Why do you care?

Quite a few of us who are separated have good relationships with our exes and are happy to help with advice and support.

I’ve been separated for 16 year now. My ex and I are friends (we are probably better now than when we were together) and she will sometimes call me if she has an issue that she needs to talk about. I ring her for her thoughts on anything feline!

She’s a good person and we have a lot of history together. I’m more than happy to help and make sure she’s doing as well as she can.

cattie

NeilCr wrote: »

I’ve been separated for 16 year now. My ex and I are friends (we are probably better now than when we were together) and she will sometimes call me if she has an issue that she needs to talk about. I ring her for her thoughts on anything feline!

Separated for 16yrs, yet you have an 8yr old daughter together? Is it a separation with benefits?

Do you pay maintenance for you daughter as there is no mention of that when you speak of your ex's income?

elsien

cattie wrote: »

Separated for 16yrs, yet you have an 8yr old daughter together? Is it a separation with benefits?

Do you pay maintenance for you daughter as there is no mention of that when you speak of your ex's income?

You do realise NeilCr isn't the OP with the 8 year old daughter?