Working Tax Credits

John_In_Lincs

Hello.

I am considering taking on a part time, low paid job, the theory being that I can make a little money. The job / wages will expand, but it will be a slow start.

I would apply for working tax credits since I would be working a minimum of 30 hours per week.

I am worried that I might be turned down for WTC, as I know people who have had difficulty, being turned down because they were not able to convince HMRC that they were working more than 30 hours.

I wondered if the government were making these conditions harder to meet, or simply turning down applications unfairly. So, if I took on the job, then apply for WTC and get turned down, I will potentially be in a mess.

Then there are rumours that WTC is being scrapped? Is that the case? Does anybody know? Is it simply going to become Universal Credit? Or is WTC going to be scrapped completely?

I am really worried about this. Thanks for any advice.

John.

pmlindyloo

John_In_Lincs wrote: »

Hello.

I am considering taking on a part time, low paid job, the theory being that I can make a little money. The job / wages will expand, but it will be a slow start.

I would apply for working tax credits since I would be working a minimum of 30 hours per week.

I am worried that I might be turned down for WTC, as I know people who have had difficulty, being turned down because they were not able to convince HMRC that they were working more than 30 hours.

I wondered if the government were making these conditions harder to meet, or simply turning down applications unfairly. So, if I took on the job, then apply for WTC and get turned down, I will potentially be in a mess.

Then there are rumours that WTC is being scrapped? Is that the case? Does anybody know? Is it simply going to become Universal Credit? Or is WTC going to be scrapped completely?

I am really worried about this. Thanks for any advice.

John.

Hi

Are you currently receiving benefits?

If so which ones?

Need this information for help about working tax credits

Darksparkle

WTC is being replaced by UC.

Will the work be on an employed or self employed basis?

John_In_Lincs

Thank you for the speedy responses.

I will be self-employed.

My current benefit is ESA.
Thank you.

John.

pmlindyloo

The next thing to check is whether you are in a full service area.

Put your post code into this link and tell us what it says:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/before-you-apply/Check-if-youre-eligible-for-Universal-Credit/

John_In_Lincs

Thank you.

It looks like I qualify. I don't know how much I would receive. I will have to go through the process to find out, but does anybody know of a site where I can find out in advance?

This is the information I got from the link. Thanks pmlindyloo

John.

You live in a live service area.

In this area you stay in the old benefits system unless you've already claimed Universal Credit in the past 6 months.

If you haven't claimed Universal Credit in the past 6 months, check what other benefits you might be able to get instead.


You can only claim Universal Credit as self-employed if all these apply:

self-employment is your main job
you get regular work from self employment
you can show your work is organised - eg you have invoices and receipts, or accounts
you expect to make a profit
If you don't meet all these conditions, you might have to look for other work that isn't self-employed while you get Universal Credit.

John_In_Lincs

I found this: https://www.gov.uk/tax-credits-calculator

It looks like I DO qualify. I hope nothing changes before I start the work. Just need to make sure I am working the minimum 30 hours per week first.

Hopefully I haven't overlooked anythying.

Thank you again all.

John_In_Lincs

After several phone calls to the Job Centre and the DWP, I discovered that I can become self-employed and ("Permitted Work") and claim the full amount of JSA.

It's possible that I will struggle to make up the 30+ hours I would need to claim WTC, but I must now prove that I working LESS than 16 hours per week in order to qualify.

This all seems a little weird, but my current circumstances dictate that I must do whatever I can to make ends meet. The JSA "Permitted Work" route means I won't take a £19 per week drop in benefits.

I hope this information will be useful to other people.

pmlindyloo

John_In_Lincs wrote: »

After several phone calls to the Job Centre and the DWP, I discovered that I can become self-employed and ("Permitted Work") and claim the full amount of JSA.

It's possible that I will struggle to make up the 30+ hours I would need to claim WTC, but I must now prove that I working LESS than 16 hours per week in order to qualify.

This all seems a little weird, but my current circumstances dictate that I must do whatever I can to make ends meet. The JSA "Permitted Work" route means I won't take a £19 per week drop in benefits.

I hope this information will be useful to other people.

I hope you mean ESA not JSA. There is no permitted work on JSA where it does not affect your benefits!

As well as doing under 16 hrs you must not go over £120 per week in order to qualify.

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Employment-and-Support-Allowance-Permitted-Work/What-is-permitted-work-(Employment-and-Support-All

Permitted work means that you still receive you full ESA and any related benefits such as HB and CT reduction. I'm not sure what you mean by losing £19 a week.