Help please to understand p/t work and Universal Credit?

[NewEmployeeAdvice]

I wonder if anyone could advise me please. I have recently offered a job to a young person, 20 years old, who is currently unemployed and has few formal qualifications. He has had a troubled home life and no longer lives with his parents, although I do not know the specifics. He seems like a great kid and I want to give him a chance. All I know is that he lives in a small flat alone (not sure whether it's privately rented or social housing) and he receives universal credit to pay for this. He is not a care leaver as far as I know.

I want to employ him on a part time basis, possibly a zero hours contract to start with, but maybe part time contracted hours of around 15 or 16 hours a week, with the option to work as many as 25 or 30 hours a week if we need him. It's a brand new business, we haven't opened yet so I just don't know how busy we are going to be. I've asked him to be flexible and willing to do up to full time if necessary, but that I can't guarantee it. He says he's happy with this arrangement, he's just pleased to have the job offer at all.

Ultimately I'd like to put him onto a full time contract but it might be a while before I'll know if that is achievable.

He said he thinks he can work up to 16 hours a week and still get his UC. Can someone explain to me how it works if I need him for more than 16 hours please? I want to make sure he isn't worse off for working more than 16 hours but still only part time. He can't be in a situation where he loses all his UC because he's tipped over the 16 hour a week limit but can no longer manage his rent and bills without it.

If he did a steady 25 hours a week for example, on minimum wage or just over it, would he be better off than working 16 hours and claiming UC? Will he lose all his entitlement to UC? I literally have no idea how this works.

And if his hours vary from week to week, how does he go about calculating what he is entitled to in UC, please? I don't want to make his financial situation unnecessarily complicated.

Absolutely agree. UC will be on this lad's back getting him to look for work. It is so hard for young people especially if you don't have the support of parents or not many qualifications. Op, it sounds like you are giving him a good chance and even if he doesn't stay with you long he will be developing great work experience and new skills.

I'm sure though if given the choice they would not choose to have such instability in their work.

I'm sure they wouldn't. And given the choice I'd like a crystal ball so I can know exactly how our busy and quiet periods will look, what the average spend per customer will be, whether these staff are going to be any good, or flaky Gen Zers who can't get out of bed on time, call in sick once a fortnight and can't leave their phones alone for more than two minutes without having an anxiety attack. Given the choice, I'd like to have a complete lack of risk and instability in my new business. But we don't always get what we want.

We have talked at great length about how we can make this work fairly, pay people fairly and ideally slightly above market rate as a starting point, not exploit anyone, but also not shoot ourselves in the foot by over-reaching in the early few months so we can't make the business viable at all and have to let them both go. It's the easiest thing in the world to tell other people how they should run and staff their business when you've never had to do it, as I am learning.

Thank you for understanding. It's not an easy balancing act!

We picked him because altough he lacks formal qualifications he has a particular skill for which there is no qualification, but it's relevant and useful to our business model. And it's his passion. So if he is as good as we hope he will be, and he is prepared to take a chance that our business will work, he could do very well out of this, in a job that makes him happy. We ALL just need to start at the very beginning and give it some time.

And all these people accusing me of exploiting a vulnerable young person, if all I cared about was making the business work at any human cost, I'd not be on here starting this thread about how to make sure he's not inconvenienced by losing his UC in the first place, would I?!

There are plenty of other 20 year old, minimum wage fodder kids who still live with their parents, or who are students wanting part time work. For an easy life I could have picked any number of them, instead of this lad.

This is what I came to say. If he doesn't earn £892 per month he will be nagged by UC to get more hours or a different job. Yes, calendar month payments are best - 4 weekly and they'll be one month where he won't get UC because they'll be two payments in the same period.

That's really useful, thanks.

It does sound like a great opportunity for him op.
He'll not be sanctioned for working part time- I dont know why a pp said that upthread.
He will however still be expected to meet his commitments for looking for full time work while he is working part time for you/show evidence of job search/ways he is trying to increase his hours. If he doesn't do that then yes, he could be sanctioned.
He should explain that it's a start up with more hrs to come.
Tell him to make sure that any vulnerabilities he has are noted by his work coach on his UC record. (MH/physical health etc)
IME WC's don't sanction someone who is trying their best to sort themselves out and some Flex is given. He should have a youth team WC- they're used to dealing with vulnerable young people and may be able to help with travel for the first few weeks. (may depend on where you are)

We don't have to pay them more than minimum wage, they certainly wouldn't get more in other similar roles at their age and experience level. But we are going to do our damnedest to start them on more than minimum wage because we want to make them feel valued. Okay?

Then maybe pay them less but guaranteed hours until you’re up and running, at which point you can increase the hourly rate. I’d rather have guaranteed hours at NMW than the offer of higher pay but less reliability.

Another point to add, his income will be assessed on the same period each month eg from 14th of the month to the 13th of the next, so make sure that whatever date his claim runs from/to that he gets paid in good time to include it in only one assessment period - if you pay him on different dates each month it may affect whether it goes into this months income and takes him over his regular claim amount (ie he gets nothing) or he’s under because he gets paid on 13th one month and 15th the following month, so he didn’t get paid at all during this assessment period, which will cause him issues. Maybe try to make sure his pay day is well away from his claim date.

That is something to consider also, thanks.

Yes a calendar month, so he doesn't get two lots of wages in one UC assessment period.