£35k tax free for working 20 hours a week....

[BitchyWitchy]

In response to the 'Benefits' thread, I thought I would post this...

We took the decision to reduce DHs hours a few months back as we realised we are better off with him working part time than full time and this is what we get WEEKLY (4 DCs):

Wages (20 hours per week) £209
Housing Benefit £188 (leaving £7 for us to pay)
Council tax benefit £19 (leaving £3 for us to pay
Tax Credits £196
Working tax credits £13
Child benefit £60.50

Thats over £35K tax free! DH's fulltime wage was £34k before tax.

Also get free prescriptions and dental care, discounted kids activities and leisure centre membership. DH is home 5 days a week and I am loving having him around to help out with the DCs and doing stuff with them which he could not do when he worked 50 hours a week! 3 DC are at school so we get quality time with the youngest.

We are also doing free OU degree courses so we can get better paid jobs in a few years.

Wish to bloody god we did this earlier when we were BOTH stressed out working fulltime and brought in LESS that what we get now after childcare.

We shall enjoy this until 2013 I can tell you! I don't give a monkey's what anyone thinks of us. DH is still working after all and who would really continue working fulltime knowing they get all this? It may not be right but while it's on offer, should we refuse it?

Agree with others who've suggested OP isn't maybe for real. I am suspicious that there is more than a hint of smuggery and boastfulness in her posts. Why? For what end?

I think this OP is bogus, too.

But that concert was amazing! :)

Yes, DH is extremely well respected in his job as he is soooo hardworking. He told his employers he wanted to spend more time with his family and they agreed. I am obviously not going to say who his employers are!

Even if worse comes to worse and he cannot go back on full time hours (which will not be the case anyway), we are not going to worry about that now. After all when we have finished our OUs my earning potential will increase (even with time out of the workplace) and DH could move into another area with the same employer with his qualification.

OU courses are free for lower incomes. Even when DH was on £34K I would have got it free due to having 4 DCS. Even get a £250 grant. Check if out if you don't believe me again.

Am posting this to show the disparity in working full and part time. I think it's crazy but have no qualms about doing it. In fact we would be STOOOPID not to. Feeling pissed off about all the years we did not do it actually.

Why are you 'obviously' not going to tell us who your DHs employers are?? What on earth is not to tell? They sound fantastic, he sounds like he's wonderful at his job.... C'mon, be great publicity for his fabulous company.

Oh, of course... You can't say because it's all a crock of shite!!

OU courses are free for people on lower incomes who don't already have a degree. Which rules myself and (I think) Riven out.

Don't hold your breath that your OU degree will increase your earning potential beyond £35k. Obviously it depends on where you live, but around here most graduates that I know are on far less than that. I have both a degree from a brick university and an OU qualification (which I paid for myself as although we would have qualified for funding based on income I didn't as I already have a degree) and so speak from experience.

Oh and my DH is very well respected in his job and is very hard working, but as we live in the real world and not fairyland his employers won't change his hours at his every whim!

"scary - do you think that if we did not claim this money, it would go back in your pocket? How dumb is that?"

Bitchy - do you not realise public spending is funded through taxation? How dumb is that?

Where else does the money come from? The benefits fairy?

The difficulty, for me, lies in deciding whether this is Hallowe'en bollox or early-Christmas bollox.

Is it bollox-with-a-pmpkin, or bollox-with-twinnkly-lights-and-a-star-on-top?

Ah, it's 5th November bollox ... knocking on doors, urging us to contribute to the Benefits Bonfire, with a few plasma TVs and benefits scroungers tied at the stake.

I've never used this, so it;s a first for me --

I don't think the OP is for real either. No employer readily agrees to a reduction in an employee's hours, unless of course they were already wanting to make cuts, in which case the assumption that the hours can easily be increased again is wrong.

You do realise that OU degree's v's Redbrick Universities are nowhere near each other don't you ?
You'll be competing with 22 year olds who will work all the hours for peanuts just to be working in their field, they will have been taught rather than read a few books and they will have University and no doubt job related references and you will be competing with them in the depths of the recession.
Your plan B has too many holes in it for my liking.

The country is absolutely jamme packed with emplioyers who have put people on to 4 day or 3 day weeks in vast swathes of british companies over the last 2 years. It's how the nation in the private sector has handled the down turn - not so much sacked people as put them on shorter hours. There are many many thousands of them. Also if someone requests flexitime because of family commitments as he has here the employer is obliged to consider it. That's the law. The law isn't sexist. It applies to men with children and women.

What we need to do is make benefits so very unpleasant and difficult that these situations do not arise but we've a long way to go to get anywhere near that.

Op you still haven't explained why you can't tell us who this wonderful company are. Does your dh work for MI5 lmao

I don't think this is true because I would imagine anyone doing this woukd be too ashamed to go bragging about it. If it is true then I wouldn't get to comfy as it will slowly dissappear over the next few year. Also a degree is worthless at an older age unless you have experience to back it up. I have a degree ( I don't know what is meant by red brick - mine is firm Cardiff uni if that makes a difference at all) it is worthless because i have been a sahm for 6 years with no experience of anything.

We also have 4 children so would get a similar amount to you but when my husband couldn't work because of his mental health we set up a business from home rather than claim all of that because well - if you are able then working for what you get is the decent thing to do, and our income is quite a bit lower than yours was even before you came up with your little plan

Xenia - so you're ok with a family working full time on minimum wage living an unpleasant life then? Are the working poor (those who don't choose to be there) just scum?

Nah, we need to sort out the housing/wages ratio, so that an ordinary family can afford to work and still put a roof over their heads.

'Although you lot seem to be missing that DH does actually work and pays tax and NI (£267 per month to be precise)'

If you were working then others wouldn't be paying 10x that per month to support you, as their tax might reduce.

If your dh is soooo wonderful at his job, then why isn't he in a senior executive position by now, or running the company? Can't be that shit hot if he isn't.

You're right about the MA Riven, mine is costing over £1200 per annum distance learning and is not OU.

Many firms have agreed to (and in fact solicited) people working fewer hours to cut costs.

So that part of the OP seems credible to me, although of course it isn't a given that the hours can go straight up again.

I thought OU degrees were things that people did more out of interest. Can't imagine it making much difference in terms of employability. So what's the plan after these OU degrees then? Because as others have pointed out, they are not of themselves passports into a good job

I think it's a great shame you have no qualms bitchy witchy you obviously have no conscience or moral fibre either. By the way, very well chosen name.

Poor BW - she is in la-la land.

Her dh can increase his hours whenever he likes - no probs.

Their OU degrees will massively improve their salaries in the future - no probs.

Oh looky looky here folks - it's amazing! Years out of the jobs market has no effect on your future earning potential!! Sitting on your bum having chosen to go part-time has no effect on your future earning potential!! Come on folks - we should surely all be doing this!!!

You are just a big, fat, hairy troll, OP. As others say this thread is really damaging. Riven's life is closer to the true existence of people who are reliant on benefits. She and her dh are highly educated but still struggling.

Hey, degrees are ten a penny these days and thousands of grads are unemployed.

Add to that the fact that OU degrees aren't held in as high esteem as other degree courses and you have cloud cuckoo land!!

Riv, I think Xenia means that people choosing to do this doesn't arise rather than your situation, and those who have genuine hardship.

'OU courses are free for lower incomes. Even when DH was on £34K I would have got it free due to having 4 DCS'

I don't think that is the case. I have 5 DC and even when my DH was on a lower wage never got it all paid for. There are partial grants avaliable and the threshold is higher the more DC you have so you could be earning in the £30K range and get a partial grant but not free. I have used the calculator several times and have been assessed myself a few times.