Benefits while working / volunteering

[Deleted User]

I am just trying to educate myself on the small chance I could end up out of work, I already worked out my entitlement would be 480 per month which includes council tax help.
I am single , own fully my house and have no savings no partner no kids.
If I was to volunteer or work a small amount of hours, does that affect the 480, ie is there a threshold? Or does any work at even one day a week reduce the benefits?

Spoonie_Turtle

For UC, paid work reduces your UC by 55% of what's earned, at the end of the assessment period in which you received it. 
Volunteering wouldn't affect it but you would still need to be able to fulfill your claimant commitment looking for work.  (Unless you have specific volunteering on mind with a view to it helping your job search, and you can get them to include it in your claimant commitment.)

For JSA, I'm not sure if they take earnings into account but if they do then you'd only get to keep the first £5 of what you earn in a week.

marcia_

[Deleted User] said:

I am just trying to educate myself on the small chance I could end up out of work, I already worked out my entitlement would be 480 per month which includes council tax help.
I am single , own fully my house and have no savings no partner no kids.
If I was to volunteer or work a small amount of hours, does that affect the 480, ie is there a threshold? Or does any work at even one day a week reduce the benefits?

 Volunteering is ok and your benefits wont be reduced so long as you are actively seeking work and can drop your volunteer work immediately to start a job. 

 Paid work will reduce your benefits of course. 

Grumpy_chap

[Deleted User] said:

I am just trying to educate myself on the small chance I could end up out of work, I already worked out my entitlement would be 480 per month which includes council tax help.
I am single , own fully my house and have no savings no partner no kids.
If I was to volunteer or work a small amount of hours, does that affect the 480, ie is there a threshold? Or does any work at even one day a week reduce the benefits?

You can volunteer without impacting benefits.  Volunteering will not (usually) reduce your claimant commitment obligations.

I assume you will be wanting to get back into full time employment relatively swiftly given your other threads about buying a new car (to get cheaper VED) (which will, presumably, require finance since you state you have no savings) and taking out two £25k loans to buy a property (because you don't want a mortgage).

How will you maintain repayments on the car loan plus the two £25k loans if relying on £480 per month benefits?

I suspect, now you know that redundancy is likely, the options to obtain finance for the car or the two £25k loans will be reduced.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6606581/how-to-buy-next-car/p1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6607898/2-x-25k-loans-6-1-and-9/p1