£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?

yes - I've just run my figures through again with 1 child instead of 3 (hmmm which 2 shall I ditch???)

and the total entitlement (using current LHA rate which is £126 a week for a 3 bedroom house - oviously would be less if I had 1 child as I'd only be on the 2 bedroom rate), including Child benefit is £1606 a year - no housing benefit

gaelicsheep - I just entered the imaginary details into 'Entitledto' and it gave her £15pw HB. It surprised me a bit too, but then I did imagine her living in Inner London with high private sector rents & no prospect of a council flat.

She wouldn't be getting that £15 top-up past October...

(And if I was earning £29750 a year, £15pw wouldn't make HB worth applying for anyway, once you factor in potential landlord problems etc).

See, when I went down to £18k we were between houses. If we hadn't found a very nice mortgage company and a very run down house, we'd have been on the streets as we couldn't afford the rents without HB and we weren't eligible for HB. The whole system is so darned confusing, and completely without logic as far as I can see. It's pot luck who's eligible for what in what circumstances.

"where did you get those figures from for the imaginary leap to 35hrs for 29k??"

Imaginary mum starts by working 20hrs per week at 17K a year, back to back with the OP's DH & totalling 40hrs pw between them.

She earns £29k when she increases her hours to 35pw at the same rate.

I don't think that people should work themselves to the bone to avoid claiming but a family unit should be prepared to at least have one person prepared to work full time to avoid claiming any more benefits than they need to.

the rules for HB have changed in recent years - now it's based on the LHA rate, not the rental price of the house you're looking to rent. I think they also started leaving CB out of the calculations as well, meaning more people became eligble, and perhaps raised the threasholds as well??

Not sure exactly how it worked before though as I first claimed housing benefit at the start of last year after it had all switched over to LHA rates. Had to top up £60 a month out of my other benefits (on full LHA), now thankfully found on that's within the rate so don't have to top up anything, and so long as he doesn't throw me out, or dramatically increase rent a price that I (hope) I can manage to afford once working as well (although will probably still qualify for some housing benefit given that I could earn 29k and still get £5 a week)

You're right though it is confusing, I only know it (fairly) well now as I've been through a single parent claim, a joint JSA claim, a joint ESA claim and now back to a single IS claim, plus 2 different HB claims and a mortgage interest claim

Yes that's pretty much where I'm coming from too.

sorry psammyad - wasn't clear about what I was asking - I meant what housing benefit figure did you use

I chucked in £150 as her LHA figure

really??

when I do it with £150 is say no HB (for 1 child).

Yes they did start leaving CB out of the calculations about 3 or 4 years back.

That does sound more likely tbh MaMoTTat - I might easily have entered another bit wrong.

(I think my argument FWIW actually worked better anyway, if she didn't get HB when she upped her hours - I'm going to assume she has a mild phobia of council officialdom & chooses not to apply for it )

I am starting to think that perhaps this is the way to go for us.....

DH is just into the HRT bracket having got himself 2 degrees, one of which he funded completely himself, he's worked very hard to get promoted, he is at his desk before 7 every morning and brings work home every night (he leaves early so is home by 5pm to see the DC before bed).

I'm a SAHM now as we have 4 DC (one young baby), we used to live in the SE but once DD1 was born we couldn't afford to move house there so we moved back to Scotland with the sacrifice of my career.

We will lose CTC in April (currently £80 a month, but will drop to £40 once the baby turns one)

We will lose CB in 2012, this is a loss of over 3K a year, to make up for this DH will have to work really hard to try and get promoted again as it is like losing 5K before tax.

Or course, with the crazy system if we were both working we could earn up to just under 88K between us and not lose our CB.

Now I am thinking like the OP if DH were to reduce his hours we could get some more benefits and he could spend more time with his DC.....

Sweetkitty most people work very hard to get where they are, most are not lucky enough to end up being HRT.

If your DH is reducing his hours because he is working very long hours that is a different matter. But tbh you already have one parent at home full time - which is more than most of us could dream of. You seem to be more motivated by wanting to claim more benefits which for a HRT seems a tad immoral to me.

vespasian - you seem to have missed the point of my post entirely, we are NOT thinking of doing this, even if it were an option and it isn't. It's probably the way I wrote the post sorry.

Yes we are very fortunate in one way to have one of us a HRT and one a SAHP, we do have 4 children and for us childcare would be too expensive, we have no family help at all either. To allow DH to do his long hours I have to be available for the school/nursery runs/afterschool clubs etc.

Yes my DH has worked hard like a number of people but to us it seems like we are being penalised for it now. That you educate yourself and drag yourself out of poverty (which both of us did) just to be taxed, taxed and taxed some more. You don't get to earn 44K for nothing and a lot of people I know who are HRTs work very long hours, work away from home for weeks at a time etc. I'm not talking about 100K + bracket here but people just over the tax bracket.

It does smack you in the mouth when you are working your bum off to pay 40% tax for someone else to reduce their hours and get more benefits.

I pay 40% tax myself, work long hours etc - although lots of poeple do work long hour without earning 44K. I don't feel penalised, I am happy to be in a situation where I can help the country to get back on its feet.

Other than on mumsnet I don't reflect on the fact that I pay tax so others can reduce their hours, but yes it is frustrating

One of the points that OP is making is that they both used to work and pay taxes, now thye are enjoying some of the benefits, but is fully aware that in couple of years time this will change again. They are being wise by using this time to upgrade the skills and take a breather in their family time before they discover that they are too tired to pay attention to each other and end up in divorce.

I think that sounds like a smart move to me- and not like a benefit cheat at all. After all that what the system is there for...in life is not all about money?!!

I'm fairly certain that the coalition will put a stop to this as they said there should never be a case where people are better off not working. I hope they mean this, including people with umpteen kids. Your responsibility, no-one elses.

Wayoftheworld, if that was correct then OP's DH would have reduced his hours and they would have lived off the lower salary and not claimed the extra in benefits. They haven't done it for any other reason than financial gain for little work.

I'm interested in whether people would have reacted differently if the OP had posted three months ago saying that:

• OP is a SAHM to 4 children, one of whom is three months old
• DH wants to work part time in order to gain some more qualifications in order to change career/earn more money in the future
• the reduced time wage would be difficult to live on and asking people if they were aware of any benefits available that might help the family achieve this.

I think the OP's original post was positioned in an inflammatory manner (deliberately or not) but I see the above as an alternative interpretation of the situation.

I would have suggested that the OP go to work to fund her husband being at home.

No- she should not go to work - unless she wants to.

Tootlesmummy there are reasons for paying taxes and one of them is for support in difficult times. And this is one of them for OP. As other people have said if the above post would have been written with a different tone to it, we would have read a different story.

I think, the maing thing that gets on people's nerves is that she is happy to be in this sittuation, unlike so many others that are earning slightly more and are stressed over their ears.

Problem of being in benefits is the attitude of being all the time supported. There is nothing wrong with having to claim JSA while looking for a job in between jobs.

I just can not see the government handing out medals to people who refuse to claim what is theirs on the first place. No one ever makes comments on how much money goes unclaimed, because some people are worried of the stigma attached to it.

Op knows she will have to start paying taxes when she starts work; she is content with what little she has is making her family happy.