Remain FT or drop to PT

Stevensuperbike

Hello there and good day, 

I’m not sure if this is the correct group but I’ll give it a go.

My current situation is: 
I work 47.5 hrs per week 5 days mon-Fri plus Saturdays earning 42k a year plus company car. I have a wife and 2 beautiful children. Both of our children have autism and both have dla. My wife is a carer and does not work, she takes and brings our kids back from school. 

My position at work is a manager so it’s hell of a lot of responsibility and managing 14 staff. I have a high level of stress daily and I feel I miss out on my family time with my wife and kids due to Full Time work commitments etc. 

I have recently looked into part time work so I could spend a higher level of time with my wife and family. I have recently looked into universal credit for the purpose of going part time work. I have done lots of calculations/ benefit calcs on UC and income on full/ part time and have ended up with the following results. 

If I remain FT we currently have over £2350 disposable income per month. If I were to work PT my disposable income would be just over £1800 per month. Expenses remain the same. UC award goes up on PT work and my wife already claims carers allowance plus both children dla plus child benefit. 

My question is has anyone else been in this position at all? I’m 37 yrs old and I’ve always worked FT since 16 yrs old. Is this a turning point in my life to enjoy life with my family rather than waste it at work doing 47.5 hrs over 5.5 days a week burning time out every week.? I know money isn’t everything but my family is. Please share your thoughts. Thank you in anticipation. 

whizzywoo

One thing which immediately springs to mind is that your wife can only claim Carer's Allowance for one child.  So potentially you could claim Carer's Allowance for the other child but there is a limit on how much a week you can earn.

Also any Carer's Allowance is deducted in full from Universal Credit but a Carer's Element can be added to Universal Credit of (I think) £36 per week each if you are both caring.  There is no limit as to how much you earn with Carer's Element.
So have your calculations included the Deductions and Additions for Caring?

Also anyone claiming Carer's Allowance or Carer's Element is not expected to look for,  or do any work so no sanctions etc if you reduce your hours.

Stevensuperbike

Hi Whizzywoo, 

yes you are correct the calculations I have done do include what you mentioned above. If I stopped working as an example here I could claim carers allowance £302 pm average over a year. You can earn up to £130 per week and still claim carers allowance. If I did part time work I’d earn too much for carers allowance but still get carers element included in UC calculation. To note if you receive carers allowance you automatically get class 1 contributions into your national insurance for state pension years down the line. Thanks 

whizzywoo

No problem, just wanted to check you knew the ins and outs

Stevensuperbike

Thanks Whizzywoo, 

I know this would be a massive decision for me however if the calcs are correct and I’ve double/triple checked them at that this would hugely benefit the amount of time I could spend with my family. There is the possibility of me and my wife both working part time (losing carers allowance) and shortening the income gap compared to my current 42k. 

calcotti

In your wife’s case she needs to consider that she needs quite a jump to make longer worth while. If she earns £130 plus Carer’s Allowance she needs to earn £200/week to break even so even if she earns £250/week she isn’t earning a huge amount for a lot more effort (and I haven’t factored in the possible taking work in terms of travel costs). Obviously she wants to work for reasons other than financial that’s a different matter.

Stevensuperbike

Thanks Calcotti, 

Yes I understand what you are saying. That’s exactly right. I’ve never been in this situation before, neither has anyone I know so it’s hard for relatives to relate. 

The job I do is really stressful and I don’t know if long term stress like this is healthy or sustainable. If I decided to do a part time job on minimum wage in the company I work for I would have no stress or responsibility what-so-ever. It really would be like going from 100% to 0% in a matter of a few weeks possibly with a job handover. 

Bear with me on this… Maybe the best solution for us is to both earn no more than £130 a week for us to be able to claim carers allowance, claim UC and dla for our children. This is the exact opposite as to what has been drilled into me from an early age so it seems all alien to me. I’ve (most people out there) have been conditioned to work the 9-5 job, get a good job pay your bills work until you’re 60+ years old .

I’m not saying I’ve been brainwashed or anything, just there has got to be more to life than working endless amount of days/hours. I know I’m an important part of the business but in reality when I’m home I’m no more important than my neighbour who’s unemployed and with no desire to work. 

poppy12345

You don’t need to limit your earnings to £130/week if you claim UC. You don’t need to claim carers allowance to be entitled to carers element. If you claim CA as well as UC then it’s just deducted in full anyway. 

calcotti

poppy12345 said:

You don’t need to limit your earnings to £130/week if you claim UC. You don’t need to claim carers allowance to be entitled to carers element. If you claim CA as well as UC then it’s just deducted in full anyway. 

Thanks, poppy. I completely overlooked the obvious!

born_again

Something not mentioned, but realise you have run the calculations.

I take it that you do not have over £16K of savings? 

Stevensuperbike

hi born_again, 

yes I have considered this , we have around 12k in savings, however some of this is to fund a holiday this year and pay a lump sum off my mortgage.