is it worth changing job to avoid IPA

tigerfeet2006

Southernbouy please pop up your I&E for us, You never know what we might see. Fresh eyes and all that.

fermi

Hi Richard,

The MSc that I did was pretty much full time for most of the students, and the ones I've helped teach have been much the same. Must have caused me to misread that OP's intentions.:o

It can be quite interesting how when you read something (especially when it's in a hurry, or your mind is elsewhere) you sometimes read it as you expect it to be, rather than how the author intended/wrote it.

I thought Tim was being a bit harsh, but he normally knows more than most. While I agree with your points Richard, you would need to be very careful not to be seen to be taking the "proverbial". Deliberately resigning a higher paid job would need a very good explanation, but as you say there are many genuine reasons for that.

I do remember two cases from a long way back that I was looking for but can't find yet. In one they did as southernbouy suggested quite blatantly and were "hauled over the coals" for it by the OR (although I don't think any sanctions were taken in the end); while in the other they did much the same and the OR basically responded "it's up to you, it's your life".
So there's another fine example of consistent treatment.:rolleyes:

wherediditallgo

I think it's also worth bearing in mind that changing job, reducing your hours or giving up work altogether may put you in a worse position long-term. If you were reducing your hours to do something specific with the time, e.g. study, then fair enough. But if you're already doing a job related to a particular career path, reducing your hours or giving up work could affect your job prospects. A year goes by very quickly (frighteningly so sometimes), & in that time work policies & the technology/software packages being used are very likely to change, & part-timers sometimes feel "out of the loop" because they're not with the full-time permanent staff every day. They also have less access to training, simply because they have to do some of it in their "off" time in order to keep up. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, but just that you should be aware of possible long-term consequences.

Praxis99

"It can be quite interesting how when you read something (especially when it's in a hurry, or your mind is elsewhere) you sometimes read it as you expect it to be, rather than how the author intended/wrote it."

This comment by fermi brings to mind a favourite quote of mine (from a book on NLP called "The Magic of Rapport")):

"I know you think you understand what I just said but I wonder if you realise that what I said is not what I meant!"

TaxAvoider

Just a small point, if you are assessed as having at least £600 surplus you will be close to the 75% payment, so the more you earn after that it will be 75% not 50% that you pay from every extra £100 you earn.

BH has a point, but as usual harshly put and I fully understand every situation is different. But if you look at it the way I do, what would have been the implications of not going BR for your finances in the three-year period ?

How much would you have had to pay to your creditors, how much stress would you have had in three years, how many creditors do you deal with ?

In my case, I have wiped out 7 years of "stress" from the "taxman" :mad: I have had around 8 - 10 creditors taken off my back :j

BR with just ONE "person" to deal with is far far better than what my life was like before BR

The Income/Expenditure guidelines imho are extremely fair, after allowing for my expenditure, my income was assessed at £600 on top of this, so I pay £420 a month.

That still leaves me £180 every month on top of my allowed expenses for the next three years.

It is also a big relief to be able to say NO to people who ask for help, with no feeling of guilt. I am by nature a generous person one of the flaws that probably got me in this situtaion.

But having an IPA for three years gives me plenty of time to take stock.

For me , the price is worth paying. If I was offered a job that gave me £1000 extra net every month, I probably would consider refusing it, but I am not going to go out of my way to look for a "borderline" job.