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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To start a thread about the new uc and how it affects entitlement to tax credit.

200 replies

morethanpotatoprints · 09/10/2012 22:23

Just as the title suggests.

How many people actually know how this will affect their personal circumstances?
Millions of workers will be affected and so many people will lose out.
This is not welfare cuts for the unemployed its anybody not working for 35 hours earning the minimum wage.

OP posts:
BrianCoxIsUpTheDuff · 10/10/2012 19:55

I think that even transferring to UC when DC2 is born, I should still fall out of the catchment for the conditions because I will be on mat leave, returning at 6 months and on £7.50 an hour.

Obviously, DC2 will have to go to nursery between 9am and 3pm, so not sure how that will affect any claim. I believe UC still pays up to 70% childcare? But how much help will I qualify? I earn £7.50 an hour, how much is nursery? A big chunk of that I'm sure. If I have to look for more hours/higher pay, surely that just increases childcare costs and I'm still fooked!?

It is such a nightmare, I have no idea what will happen.

My biggest fear is losing/having to give up my current position - I imagine my company would possibly reach a compromise if I asked, but who knows. Long term, I am on to a career there - with a good salary, no UC required!

I hate the not knowing. How can they be on the verge of launching this and have such little information for us to get our heads around it!?

zookeeper · 10/10/2012 19:56

thanks is that gross or net ike?

BrianCoxIsUpTheDuff · 10/10/2012 19:58

As I understand it, it doesn't matter if you work part time as long as you earn more that the equivalent of whatever 35 hours at minimum wage. So someone working 18 hours at £15 an hour will be ok but someone working 30 hours at 7.50 won't be. It that right?

As I understood it, this applies to anybody who doesn't meet the criteria - so if you have a child under 5, but are working PT, you will not have to attend interviews/look for other work (same if you are a carer, lone parent etc) I think what you have quoted is aimed at child-free households?

I think Confused

zookeeper · 10/10/2012 20:09

God i feel sick - I take home about £856 a month as it is working 21 hours a week and today have been told at work we are to have a pay cut next year of some 25% I have three dcs and am a lone parent. It doesn't look good for me does it?

zookeeper · 10/10/2012 20:12

I feel very fearful for the future Sad

BrianCoxIsUpTheDuff · 10/10/2012 20:12

How old are your DC's zoo ?

In one of the links upthread (I have read that many, I can't recall which) it did say something about parents with children under 13 not being pursued if childcare is an issue (I am paraphrasing)

Viviennemary · 10/10/2012 20:16

I tried that calculator and entered a few hypothetical amounts. From what I could work out it seems that it's only housing benefit that's being cut. And if you get under £250 a week housing benefit it doesn't seem to be cut at all. I tried single parent with one child.

zookeeper · 10/10/2012 20:20

mine are 11,8 and 7. I'm just reading something about it which says it's only being partially introduced in April in one area; will try to link

zookeeper · 10/10/2012 20:25

can't seem to make it work

Original poster
morethanpotatoprints · 10/10/2012 20:38

I'm still struggling to see the wider implications of the uc in terms of what jobs will be affected and also how it will work out. For example what happens to part time workers who can't find additional work, will they get any money at all, will they leave their jobs and become unemployed?
Its quite scary that the lowest hours/pay are services that many rely on such as childcare workers, TA's in schools, etc.

OP posts:
SkinnyMarinkADink · 10/10/2012 22:09

Jesus, had a read of that self employed link and i am very very worried for the future!i hope my town is the 2017 lot to be changed!

CouthyMowWearingOrange · 10/10/2012 22:15

Truthfully, I have known for ages (and was yelling on MN as loudly as I could, under my old name) about just how awful UC will be.

In my case, my eyewateringly expensive costs of SN childcare would cripple me if I was working. Two DC's with SN's needing childcare, plus a toddler that would need Nursery, plus before & after school club for the other one...

As for the ESA, I know the ins and outs of why it would be a stoopid idea to vlaim right now, to do with the fact that I WILL get turned down at first and have to appeal, and due to the current lead times on appeal hearings for ESA (currently 18 MONTHS), I would be well into UC territory before my appeal is ever heard. Which would push me onto UC.

I am very well informed about the horrors to come from UC, that most people can't even begin to imagine.

CouthyMowWearingOrange · 10/10/2012 22:22

Most retail jobs here are 15-22.5 hrs. With contracts that state that you can't take a second job.

Nobody seems to have factored these employment contracts into UC legislation. How can someone working a PT retail job for NMW take a second job if that leads to them losing the first one?

And if they get sacked from the first one (because the jobcentre has made them take a second job), then they will get their UC sanctioned...

It makes you wonder - either the coalition KNOW that this is an issue and don't care that their figures for claimants has gone down because they have sanctioned so many people, or they genuinely don't have a clue what they are going to be doing to practically every supermarket worker that needs to claim UC as a top up.

The cynic in me says that they know EXACTLY what they are doing, if they lose their job through breach of contract, their first sanction will be 3 months. After 12 weeks of hunger, no money at all, you would be much more compliant about doing Workfare in order to eat...

But then, I'm VERY cynical...

CouthyMowWearingOrange · 10/10/2012 22:28

What they want is for anybody that can survive without UC to do so. Those that literally have no choice (Lone Parents, Carers, people with disabilities) will be so compliant over workfare that the Government will have a ready made slave labour pool at the ready.

I feel that the Coalition's intention is to sweep away 100 years of increasing rights for the poor in one fell swoop.

I'm sure that if the Tories win the next election, we WILL see workhouses in the UK again.

picnicbasketcase · 10/10/2012 22:33

What happens if one parent works full time and the other is a SAHP? Do they get UC or do both have to be working? I honestly don't know what the hell we're meant to do if we're both meant to work, DH works shifts which change every week so I don't have fixed hours I can work.

MissFenella · 10/10/2012 22:43

Uc starts in Oct 2013 not this year.

GockandJuice · 10/10/2012 22:43

This is all so confusing! At the moment I work 16 hours per week and take overtime as much as I can, I work in retail and tbh all the jobs I applied for were part time with oppurtunities for overtime, some weeks I can do nearly 40 hours sometimes it's my basic 16 but what will happen to me when this comes in? At the moment DS is under 5 but he will be 5 by the time this happens.

MissFenella · 10/10/2012 22:47

You report your additional hours worked and the benefit is adjusted but you don't get like for like deductions.

For every pound extra you get they deduct 80p (I think).

aufaniae · 10/10/2012 22:49

"Uc starts in Oct 2013 not this year." That depends on where you live. The NW are being used as guinea pigs so are getting it earlier than that.

MissFenella · 10/10/2012 22:51

Aufanie - pathfinder starts in October 2013.

GockandJuice · 10/10/2012 22:51

But I'll have to prove I'm looking for full time work?

MissFenella · 10/10/2012 22:52

apols for spelling - Aufaniae

CakePops · 10/10/2012 22:52

What's the figure that a couple with two children (one between 5-13 will have to bring home a month in order to claim UC?

And does anyone know the cut off point in which you can't claim UC as a couple?

MissFenella · 10/10/2012 22:53

No Gock because you already have a job and are seeking additional hours where you can and working them. Also with a young child you may not be in the work search group.
Attention will be concentrated on those who do no paid employment at all - as it is now.