overtime& tax credits/housing benefit

KylieFan24

I claim housing benefit and tax credits and over christmas I did quite a bit of overtime to my usual work hours. After christmas when my payslips got checked I was told I had been overpaid housing benefit due to me doing overtime and my housing benefit got reduced right down to virtually nothing.

I wondered at this point whether it was actually worth my while doing overtime but as I didnt sit down and work out the exact amounts im not sure and plus the bloomin` housing benefit notifications are soooo complicated and long-winded I doubt I would have been able to work it out.

Basically I just wondered if others that claim benefits ever bother to do overtime or if it just ends up being not worth you while in the long run?

real1314

Broadly, speaking, if you're not getting full HB against your rent due to income, you'll lose 65% of anything extra you earn by reduction of HB. For council tax benefit it's 20%, so between the 2 you end up with about £1.50 extra overall income for every £10 net you actually earn.

It's generally only worth it if you're going to get enough income to get completely off benefit.

KylieFan24

thanks, hmm yeh dont think I will bother with it in future, waste of time what with the stress of getting all the letters through with re-calculated benefits, its all confusing enough to me anyway