Student payments and my working

Mbeira

HI, I need some advice.  
I'm currently not working and my son is at UNI.  As I only have only non-taxable income, he gets the lot on loans.  So if I get a job I'll have to replace a lot of that money he gets extra, which is around £6k a year.  I have two girls, going to college this year, so get CTC for the next two years if I don't get a job, and they get free meals and free travel to and fro - this would be £700 a year EACH for them to go on the public bus.  

Once the girls leave home to go to Uni, I get only my RAF tax free index linked pension, which is enough to live on if I live like a nun.  OK.  But one wants a Humanities degree, one wants to be a Medical Doctor - 5 years!  If I'm working, I will have to find £12k a year for each minimum - and this is the North East. Work?  Don't make me laugh.   They'd need a £5k top up on expenses to get them to the £8k their big brother is getting. He has learnt to live on that (finally).  The numbers do not stack up.

Is there any way I can earn money and not end up with having to bring the girls home because I have to (and can't) contribute to their degrees?  I'll be 55 when they start Uni so could cash in a pension, but need to be confirmed with MS before this happens, so I can get an enhanced annuity, which would be so much the better.   It's hard getting confirmed that you have MS, even almost as hard as living with it.  I've been 'in limbo' for years.  

Only job on the horizon is at Amazon.  I won't tell you how I feel about this.  There's a new fulfilment centre coming six miles away.  They're only offering 1 year contracts, and if I do that and then aren't kept on, I can't get Universal Credit because I have ISAS (part of my pension provisioning, for which UC punishes me) If I do I get around £17k PA plus Xmas madness which means no top up benefit if you now include my non-earned income which they now do.  

So am I really better off not getting a job in two years time (or now?).  It's nuts.  Is this what the Govt planned?  

Officially I live in one of the most deprived areas of the country.  It should be easier than this.  

NedS

Mbeira said:

I can't get Universal Credit because I have ISAS (part of my pension provisioning, for which UC punishes me) If I do I get around £17k PA plus Xmas madness which means no top up benefit if you now include my non-earned income which they now do. 

If your ISAs are truly part of your pension planning, then I would suggest you contribute that money into a pension scheme as quickly as possible (a) so that you get to take advantage of the tax relief and (b) so that it becomes disregarded from UC when you eventually have to move onto UC from tax credits, if you think you may need support in the future.

If you are currently not working, you can pay £2880 (and have that topped up to £3600) per year into a pension. If you took the job at Amazon on £17K per year, you could contribute your full earnings into a pension and get tax relief on the lot, and by doing so your net earnings would be zero so you'd still receive full tax credits or UC (depending how large your ISA savings are). So for you, work could very much pay as you can use your savings to offset additional pension contributions. Effectively you are moving your ISA savings into a pension and the Government are giving you 25% tax relief and full UC (or tax credits) for the privilege. You will be able to access any money paid into a pension once you turn 55.

[Deleted User]

^^^ I'm sorry but if that were true everybody in the country would pay everything they earnt into a pension in order to claim benefits.
OP you need some advice re:your pension, pension wise offer a great free service they gave me some great advice.

xylophone

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/pension-contributions#:~:text=For%20Universal%20Credit%20all%20one,are%20disregarded%20when%20calculating%20income.&text=All%20employer%20pension%20contributions%20are,anywhere%20else%20in%20the%20calculator.

For Universal Credit all one hundred percent of contributions made to a personal or occupational pension are disregarded when calculating income.

If the OP were earning £17,000 a year he could pay up to £13, 600 into a personal pension and receive tax relief  of £3,400.

If he was in receipt of UC, the contribution would be disregarded when calculating income.

silvercar

So if I get a job I'll have to replace a lot of that money he gets extra, which is around £6k a year.

The non-means tested element of the student loan still amounts to a significant sum and you have to be earning in excess of around £60k to lose all the means tested element. You can earn £25k with no effect on the loan at all! 

Mbeira

@Silvercar, thanks. £25k is great but I suspect it's a sliding scale:
I had a job earning £5k a year and this stopped DS from getting a chunk of his benefit at college, I only got a part payment to help with travel costs.  This time I have two going and they will get both parts of the benefit as I don't have a job (and so really can't afford one). 

I am still paying into my pension (thanks to CTC) but also have done when i don't get it.  That payment is ring fenced before we even eat.  I'll be on around £30k at retirement age so not really bothered about putting the ISA into it, it's instantly available cash and doing soooo well.  It's the intervening years that will be interesting.  

Mbeira

xylophone said:

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/pension-contributions#:~:text=For%20Universal%20Credit%20all%20one,are%20disregarded%20when%20calculating%20income.&text=All%20employer%20pension%20contributions%20are,anywhere%20else%20in%20the%20calculator.

For Universal Credit all one hundred percent of contributions made to a personal or occupational pension are disregarded when calculating income.

If the OP were earning £17,000 a year he could pay up to £13, 600 into a personal pension and receive tax relief  of £3,400.

If he was in receipt of UC, the contribution would be disregarded when calculating income.

It's not my income or my pension payments that's the issue with UC, it's my savings.  

silvercar

Mbeira said:

@Silvercar, thanks. £25k is great but I suspect it's a sliding scale:
I had a job earning £5k a year and this stopped DS from getting a chunk of his benefit at college, I only got a part payment to help with travel costs.  This time I have two going and they will get both parts of the benefit as I don't have a job (and so really can't afford one). 

I am still paying into my pension (thanks to CTC) but also have done when i don't get it.  That payment is ring fenced before we even eat.  I'll be on around £30k at retirement age so not really bothered about putting the ISA into it, it's instantly available cash and doing soooo well.  It's the intervening years that will be interesting.  

With total earnings of £25k or less, your offspring get the full amount of student loans/ grants. 
I don't know how earnings of 5k can mean a chunk of benefit (I assume you mean student loan or grants) is lost, unless you have some work earnings and some pension and the total is greater.