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

"Of course the government want wages to be higher, because then we all pay more tax."

Alibabaandthe40nappies I'm afraid you're not living in the same world as the rest of us! It would be lovely to have such a rose-tinted view of this government, but it's not the reality I'm afraid!

They are on the side of big business. They want to make it easier for companies to hire & fire, to get access to cheap or free labour.

When they talk about doing away with "red tape" they often mean doing away with workers' rights.

When they talk about making companies more "competitive" they often mean with lower wages.

Raising wages for ordinary working people is not on their agenda!

People in part-time jobs who claim UC and earn less than MW full time (or fewer hours in certain conditions, e.g. if you have kids) will be classed as "underemployed" and required to prove they are seeking more hours / better pay, and can be required to take new jobs against their will, or lose UC.

Yes. But only jobs that improve their position.
You can still work 10 hours a week because it fits around your study/life style/whatever but you won't be supported financially for those choices. And rightly so.

I'm so confused.
I know this will probably affect me but I don't understand how exactly.
How can I plan for this if I don't know what's about to happen?

We pay the tax at the rate the government sets (any government), it doesn't have to wait for our wages to go up.

I didn't hear about students not being exempt in some areas when the changes come into place. But what I don't think is fair is this. A PhD student could be on £14,000 a year grant. Pays no tax on this and pays no council tax. Person on £12,000 a year pays tax and council tax. How on earth can this be right. I think students on a student loan should be exempt but not all categories of student.

Mosman, the jobs will not necessarily improve people's position.

You may choose to be in a low-paid job as you know long-term it's got great prospects (which equates to more money for the tax payer overall).

You could be forced to leave this job to go clean floors, in a company with no prospects, as the cleaning job is more hours a week.

That does not benefit the individual or society as a whole.

Part-time nurses could be forced into unskilled jobs if they can't get more hours at work. How does that help anyone?!

Oh well I guess nobody knows the answer. Suppose I trapped in NMW til I drop dead. Thou shaky not try and better thyself and all that.

Here was me thinking that after a year of unsuccessful job hunting I had made positive steps towards finding the light at the end of the tunnel. However no, I'm lazy and irresponsible. :(

'when council tax benefit disappears, some councils will do away with the council tax exemption for students. (That's another one I think people will be surprised about, when they're expected to pay council tax for their DCs at uni).'

I never understood this exemption. Do students not use council services then, same as anyone else?

"I never understood this exemption. Do students not use council services then, same as anyone else?"

This is a very short-sighted question as they are not students forever!

The idea is that enabling young people to study we end up benefitting as a society as we have a better educated population. Also, from a financial point of view, if people can get qualifications then they get better pay long term and so we get more tax overall. Also, when students used to survive mainly on grants (from the government) it was a but silly for money to be going in circles!

It's about taking a long view about what's best for society.

If we make it easier for the less well off to study, we'll have a bigger pool of people applying. I'd rather my surgeon was the best available, rather than simply the one with the richest parents wouldn't you?

lazy - no-one knows yet. There is a clause in the document that says 'if claimants fall below the conditionality they must show that they are either trying to find additional income, or are improving their prospects of getting work in other ways'. That is fairly vague, but does suggest that studying will be taken into account.

None of this happens until October, and it will be phased in. You could be most of the way through your training before you are affected in any way.

God this is so depressing, both what the Tories plan to do and some of the attitudes here.It wont affect me as I work full time but its so awful that it will have such an effect of real peoples lives and the Tories seem to be a juggernaut that is just going to keep going and going. Im a Mental Health Nurse and I know recruitment is frozen mostly in my trust (Glasgow), but recently there were 7 Band 5 jobs advertised - and there were over 150 applicants. This is unheard of. Ladybeagle I have to agree with you, Im no supporter at all of Scottish Independence but this might be the final straw for me to.

Ok so perhaps the fact I am studying full time in a vocational course may hopefully give me temporary exemption so I can finish. I'll be applying for every job going when qualified. Would be anyway even if I wasn't legally compelled, it is the whole point of doing this, to work.

Please don't leave us Scotland!!

"Please don't leave us Scotland!!"

Yes, please don't! We'll be stuck with the bastards forever then!

Sounds terrifying.

Ifnotnowthenwhen - IMO the background problem is that a proportion of the working class are not working and there is a perception that some (not all) are/were having an easy life at taxpayers expense, so public opinion is not as liberal as it was. I read something about a family 'just scraping by' on benefits but two of their weekly "essentials" was a carton of fags and sky TV; stuff like this doesn't engender sympathy.

It seems the govt is trying to find ways of making sure that people who are not earning much FT are not subsidising those choosing to earn less PT. I think this is a different kettle of fish entirely as working is working IMO and there are many very valid reasons for working PT and/or on MW for a bit. Yes the country is broke but it also seems illustrative of a public opinion backlash against anyone receiving govt help.

I just asked a question, auf.

And tuition fees are a far greater barrier than council tax. At any rate, the full exemption is probably going.

Great post, IfNot.

It says that for couples who have children under 13 yOu can select one of you to be sanctioned with conditions to employment as per lone parents, so in school time etc, does that mean because DH works I can still work pt? Without this malarky impacting on us? How many hours would I have to do, 24?

whats the rules for couples, one working full time on £19k one working part time on NMW, does anyone know?

So it means that you have 2 able bodied adults in a household and between them they are expected to earn £217.00 a week and if they don't then a switch to UC will mean they are encouraged to find work to do so, and people are up in arms about this because???

It would be helpful to know what kind of sums of money are involved. I don't think it should be a choice that people should expect to be heavily subsidised so they can choose to work part-time. How can this be fair on people struggling to cope with a full-time job. The whole thing has gone mad.

Haven't finished catching up with thread yet, but some of these replies are just like "Let them eat cake"!

Wrapround childcare, nannies, two-hour commutes, breakfast clubs, moving from the sticks to the city??

These are workers who wages are so low they need topping up by the state, remember.

The train fare would be more than the wages. Ditto the breakfast club and childcare. Poor people cannot move from a cheap area to an expensive one.

Moreover, local authorities and the DWP will be empowered to make people in need of rehousing go to live in cheaper areas. By definition there are fewer jobs in these areas.

I'm getting a log cabin on an island somewhere and going off grid.

This is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Ever.

Sorry expatinscotland if I made you feel under attack, I didn't mean to!

"whats the rules for couples, one working full time on £19k one working part time on NMW, does anyone know?"

AFAIK they take the household income rather than the individuals.

"The introduction of ?in-work conditionality? through the requirement to prepare, look, and be available for more or better-paid work is a new concept.

The intention is to apply it to claimants below a ?conditionality threshold?. For most claimants, the threshold will be set at the weekly national minimum wage for a 35-hour week. At current levels, this would be £212.80 for single claimants over 21, and £425.60 for couples (before tax). Claimants with young children, caring responsibilities and work-limiting health problems would have a lower threshold, equivalent to the weekly national minimum wage for the number of hours they are required to be available for work, as set out in their claimant commitment.

Claimants above the threshold would not be subject to conditionality. Those below the threshold would be subject to all the work-related requirements, including both members of a couple, unless one was already in full-time work. There will need to be (inevitably complex) rules on the calculation of pay, where it fluctuates."

From this page on the Child Poverty Action Group website