to think most part-time workers don't know what's about to hit them?! (Universal Credit)

[aufaniae]

Do you work part-time and get Working Tax Credit or Housing Benefit?

Did you know that once you're on Universal Credit, you'll be expected to attend the Job Centre to prove that you're looking for better paid work / more hours, in much the same way as unemployed people must prove they're looking for work.

If the Job Centre find an interview for you, you will have to attend (with 48 hours notice) even if it clashes with your paid work.

If you are offered a job with more hours, or better pay than your current one, you will be obliged to take it, even if you have good reason for not wanting to e.g. it's only a temporary post (whereas your current one is permanent) / has no training & worse prospects than your current job / makes picking your children up from school impossible / requires you to travel much further / has nothing to do with the career you're following.

If you don't attend the interview and/or take the job, your UC will be sanctioned, you will lose the UC for months or even years (depending on if it's your first infraction).

You will be forced to continue "upgrading" your job until you earn the equivalent of minimum wage for 35 hours a week.

I suspect there are lots of people (e.g. parents who work part time so they can pick their kids up from school) who will be affected by this, but don't realise it yet.

More info here

I don't know about that but In my experience csa seem useless. My ex works "cash in hand" has done since we separated. Therefore they don't Pursue him for maintenance. The fact he supports a nice lifestyle, works openly and walks about in work clothes would be easy to spot really!
My other friends ex pays very little as he has shacked up with ow who has two children. Apparently those children are a priority over his actual children. Her dc are very traumatised from the split and can only see their father supervised. She will have to increase her hours and leave them in childcare whilst their father supports ow children.
WTAF??

On CSA:

"the government is winding up the CSA and replacing it with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) on a new IT system ...

The changes will, from 2014, involve closing the 1.2 million cases of parents currently receiving money through the CSA and stopping payments currently taken directly from their ex-partners' wages or bank accounts. All non-resident parents ? the ones not looking after the children ? will be given the chance to make the payments directly to the parent with care, rather than having them collected by the new CMS, regardless of their previous payment record. ...

But Janet Allbeson, a senior policy adviser with the single parent charity Gingerbread, says this policy will be very worrying to a women who has been a victim of abuse, as money is frequently used as a form of control by the abusing partner: "The government has accepted that domestic violence can take the form of financial abuse, yet it intends to put a victim in the position where she is potentially exposed to further attempts at manipulation and control, by the payer altering payment dates or withholding money. This runs the risk of perpetuating the abuse."

If the non-resident parent fails to pay through Direct Pay, the CMS will step in to enforce payments, and both parents will be charged for the collection of maintenance ? a service that until now has been free."

From a Guardian article

Good god. So you will have to pay to get your own money that its not your fault you didn't receive! Am I living in some strange parallel universe?

I should mention that article's from October, just in case there have been any changes to the policy since!

What is this universal credit and when does it come into play? I am a single mum who has just cut her hours to 25 hours a week so I can do school runs, I receive child tax credits and currently working tax credits although I think this stops in April, and I get housing benefit. Will I be affected? I also get DLA for my dd, putting this as I dont know if it will affect the answer.

Garlicblocks - there are many many families where no one has worked for generations. Believe me, I work with them as a volunteer. Most of them have little education and no intention of ever working. Usually they live in poor council housing on large estates where everyone else does the same.

Baking I live in council estate. My downstairs neighbour comes from a family like that, he laughs at me going to work. However he is the exception in my street, those who are not working right now have either retired or been made redundant in the past few years. Except for the lady across the road who hasn't worked for 25 years. Hopefully the prejudiced people will let her off as she is 100 and in a wheel chair.

Prejudiced ideas such as those make job hunting harder as applications are automatically rejected due to address. One of the rejections I actually received said "sorry but we do not accept applications from your postcode. So if you are lucky enough to survive being cut due to being unemployed or underemployed you have to be lucky enough not to be cut for having the wrong address. That's just to get your application read, a level playing field it is not. Then people come along and say oh you can't be trying. Then wonder why you get upset at that comment.

I don't know about that but In my experience csa seem useless. My ex works "cash in hand" has done since we separated. Therefore they don't Pursue him for maintenance. The fact he supports a nice lifestyle, works openly and walks about in work clothes would be easy to spot really!

So phone the inland revenue then, I believe there's a hotline and let them calculate what he owes in tax and from that you can work out what he owes in child support.

Prejudiced ideas such as those make job hunting harder as applications are automatically rejected due to address. One of the rejections I actually received said "sorry but we do not accept applications from your postcode

Who said that ?
I'm surprised because universities actually have to interview very unlikely candidates from certain postcodes to be seen to offer equal opportunities.
May I suggest in this electronic age there's no need for anyone to have your address until it's to send your contract of employment out. So don't offer it if you feel that's what's holding you back.

Lazy I apologise if I come a Ross as prejudiced. The estate I volunteer in is very notorious and part of what I do is try and get people into work or on training schemes. I only speak from experience of my little area.

However, many of them do face prejudice on many levels. For where they live, how they look, how they speak, their lack of previous experience etc. the point I was trying to make is that mOre focus needs to be on getting the unemployed into work (increasing skills and opportunities) rather than pushing those already in work, even if it part time).

*Come across

I worked part time while studying then full time for 9 years (barring Mat leave) before being made redundant and taking a part time job in preference to remaining unemployed. This apparently makes me a bad person. DH worked full time for 15 years before redundancy. My Dad worked full time from 14 to 65 then part time from 65 to 70. At that point he retired because the pain and vomitting from chemo became to much, he died not that many months later.

My Grandfather only worked til 63 and my great grandfather only til 30. They did however die at 63 and 30 respectively. Yet I am labelled a scrounger from a family of scroungers and people wonder why I'm offended.

In interests of full disclosure my Dad did have a break in his employment between 18 and 21 as he was in the forces during WWII.

Foxy, as someone in your household gets DLA you will be immune to the benefit caps which others will face. You won't get any less than you currently do.

I have looked into all this as I am currently a Carer but want to get back into work and have an interview coming up for a part time job. The jobcentreplus advisor told me that I won't be affected by yhe cuts altbough when I get this job (it's mine I tell you [grin ]), I might be slightly worse off as it'll come off my income support. Nothing else will be affected though.

I too am extremley worried about this.

We have 4 children and 1 DSD and everything was fine until last year when after a viral illness I developed ME and Fibro. As a result I became almost housebound/bedbound and DH gave up his job to care and help me.

We claimed HB / CTC / WTC but decided to set up our own business. I am a whizz on computers and run it all from home and my husband does any running around that i need. I manage about 20 hours a week and earn roughly £10,000 per year.

We have not claimed carers benefit but wondering if we will need to do that now.

Also the nature of my illness means I can have OK days and then massive relapses. It is very hard to prove so should we be forced into work, how will we provide if there is a massive replapse.

Thank you JakeBullet for your reply. I do not get carers allowance but do get the DLA for her. And the reason I have taken a cut in hours is so I can be there for her more.

When does it all take place though as still get tax credit letters etc as if it will carry on now no mention of universal credit?

Again JakeBullet thank you for your reply.

Mosman the application specifically asked for my address and postcode, they were classified as essential fields. It wasn't a University it was for a job in a national company. It was one of those automatically generated e-mails. It looked to me ad if it was programmed to send to anyone who entered a postcode from a list. I would have preferred if the list of barred postcodes was available then I could have spent time applying elsewhere.

lazybastard you should send that one to the papers (the Guardian?) surely it must be discriminatory and therefore illegal?

Merry, whilst lots of people are sensible and financial plan before having children there are many many more that dont.

How many have had extra children whilst claimimg benefit or whilst already getting help from tax credits. I'd guess far more than those who dont claim any benefits as they dont get a pay rise everytime they have a child. Peoples versions of being responsible vary too, for some its ensuring their wage stretches for others its checking what extra they will get from tax credits. Plenty of posts on here encouraging people to add to their family or start a family even if it means being subsidised by the state.

UC will have teethng problems just like tax credits as all new systems do. Its not asking people to work hundreds of hours just that everyone who claims state help is already doing everything they can to support themselves. There will still be enough hours for housework and children so its scaremongering to say children will suffer. Working to support yourself has always been around, its just being tightened up to ensure people dont get away with working very few hours and enjoying top ups from other tax payers working many more hours.

"its scaremongering to say children will suffer."

Children will suffer because of the changes to the benefits system, The sanctions for not complying will push some families into homelessness and destitution for example. Homeless charities are already talking about rising homelessness since the tories got elected and expect to see more. Children's charities are concerned about more children growing up in poverty.

Many women especially lone parents, stand to lose under the new system (disproportionately to men).

It's not scaremongering. Try googling it. (I don't have time right now!) Or check out mumsnet's own guide to UC (linked earlier in this thread).

Also if people are having to have wages topped up by the government to survive, I would suggest there is a problem with wages, and high rents, it shouldn't be so.

The implications of what you're saying is that only the rich should have children, did you really mean that?

Oh, I'm confused.

DH works full time 8-5, 5 days a week

I work 3 days a week, 9-5.

We get a small amount of WTC and child benefit.

I can't work full time, the cost of childcare would just be too much and we couldn't pay it and bills. I also can't not work as I have depression and would go crazy at home.

I am studying off my own back for a set of financial qualifications to better my prospects.

Please could someone tell me what will happen to us?

I'm not sure it would count auf. They are not discriminating on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability. We also need to remember that discriminating against the less well off is actively encouraged even if it makes it harder to become better off. I am tempted to say especially as some want to keep people down.

LadyFlump - it depends on how much your gross income is per week. The figure was given someone on the thread but I can't remember sorry.

Mosman the application specifically asked for my address and postcode, they were classified as essential fields. It wasn't a University it was for a job in a national company

That would be discrimination so yes send it off to one of the national or local newspapers I'm sure they would be delighted to run a story and maybe you'll get a job as a result of them highlighting your case.

It was one of those automatically generated e-mails. It looked to me ad if it was programmed to send to anyone who entered a postcode from a list.

I assume you still have the email ? I am very shocked that a national company would be so foolish as to put that in writing.