Working part time and getting UC, is this right?

[GoAgainstNicki]

I’ve posted this in Money Matters but have had no response (it hasn’t even been 1 hour yet but I need to make a decision by tomorrow!) so I’ve posted this again in Chat due to traffic. My post is below.

I’ve posted about something similar some weeks ago but now that I have a part time role that I’ve been presented with, I just wanted to ask if my calculations are right.

So to work out what your UC deductions will be, it’s this formula right? ‘The calculation is total amount of wages paid in your assessment period minus £344 ( work allowance) x 0.55. The figure you get is what's deducted from your total UC.’

So say I earned £960 a month. It’ll be £960 - £344 = £616. £616 x 0.55 = £338.80. This is the amount that’ll get deducted from my UC.

My UC amount is £1934 so with £338 deducted it means I’d receive £1596 UC along with my £960 pay which totals = £2556 a month. Surely that can’t be right? That’s so much money, it sounds too good to be true…

Wait a minute, is the correct calculation.£960 - 344 x 0.55 = £770.80. This is the amount that’ll get deducted from my UC. My UC amount is £1934 so with £770 deducted it means I’d receive £1164 UC along with my £960 pay which totals = £2124 a month. Is this the correct amount?!

Someone who’s good with maths pls help!

Entitled to is a really good website to give you a tough estimate of what you would be eligible for.

You can earn £344 per month without it affecting your UC. Once you go above this, your UC is reduced by 55p for every £1 that you earn. So yes, your UC will reduce by £338.80.

Put another way, of your earnings of £960, you would always be able to "keep" £344, and additionally you are better off by 45p in every £ above that, so overall you should be better off by £621.20.