I am supporting a local parent who claims UC. I have tried to answer her questions via the CAB and online and have drawn a blank so I’m asking here in case lots of you know the answer (they can’t be uncommon questions!).
She gets £1400 pm UC. She can work, but not ft because she is also a ft carer. But in month when she has worked and earned c£300, she has received the same amount of UC but has also been contacted by her local council for council tax payments (she previously had 100% of her council tax covered).
What she would like to know is how much she can earn each month without UC being reduced and without her council tax benefit being reduced.
To be absolutely clear, she’s not lazy and she works (unpaid) harder than I do in my 40 hour a week job. But every penny counts and because some weeks she can work more hours than others, her income is very “lumpy” (this is dependent on her caring responsibilities - eg during school holidays she can’t work at all, her child would not be able to access holiday clubs etc and a babysitter would cost as much as she would earn). Any paid work she does is very much like someone with a ft demanding job taking on an extra evening/weekend job so it really has to be worth her while financially as it puts her under quite significant physical and emotional strain to do any paid work at all. She would love nothing more than to be working ft and not claim UC but this won’t be possible for a few years at least.
If you’ve read this far, thank you! Any help to navigate this would be amazing. I have tried to speak to UC but they don’t seem to have clear cut off’s as to how much you can earn etc.