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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be worried about starting this zero hours job as a single parent?

49 replies

bigbuttons · 03/03/2013 08:59

Hi, I'm not sure if this a good place to post this, but I wanted to get a feel of what others thought/would do in this situation.
A little bit about me. Last year my ex I split up and because he would not leave the house i had to move into a rented house with 4 of our 6 dc's, the 2 older ones chose to live with him, which breaks my heart. The split was mutually agreed, he even put down a deposit on the house I am renting. ex said he would support us, so i felt confident about moving. He is self employed.
Soon after I moved out he said he had no money and could not provide any support.
I had to go cap in hand to the state and have been on JSA/housing/. child tax credits since last June. My dear parents are helping out with the rent.
I stopped working in 1998 to raise our family. We have 6 children aged 5-14. At the time ex was solvent and each child was planned , there was money.
Before children I was a primary school teacher.
I have been trying to find work in schools since last June. I need it to be part time/school hours because I am on my own with the 4 younger ones. I am volunteering in schools and have done some supply to try and get up to date and help my cv. I have applied for a few jobs but no luck.
There are barely any new positions coming up, I mean about 2 a month.
I am feeling desperate and depressed ( that's another story). There is no work.

Last week a friend mentioned that the company she works for ( a college catering company, she is a dinner lady and so would I be) were needing to find someone asap. It all looked positive, work within schools hours, just down the road. BUT and here's the big but, it's a ZERO hours contract.
I would be working different hours each week and would not be paid in the holidays. No hours are guaranteed although they say there would always be at least 16. It would be difficult to deal with the housing people as i wouldn't be able to tell them how much i was going to be paid each week ( minimum wage, but hours would vary) and in the holidays i wouldn't be getting anything at all.
I have tentatively said I would start tomorrow, but this weekend i have been having serious, I mean serious panic attacks. I am so worried I will be doing the wrong thing. I am going to the dr's next week to ask about taking medication as I am no longer functioning, eating or sleeping.
I feel like I want to throw up all throw time and keep bursting into tears.
I feel so useless.
Thank you for reading. I know I might get a flaming here, but i also wanted to garner some opinion.

OP posts:
babybythesea · 03/03/2013 09:46

Not sure what to say.
I opened this thinking I might be able to help as I'm on a zero hours contract too but I can't think of anything useful to say regarding your situation. So this is mine.

In terms of financial planning, the contract has been a bit of a disaster. I only work term time, but as it's not in a school, even then there can be weeks when i get nothing. In a good month (October or June are usually good) I can earn around £900. In a poor month when I am still picking up work (December, say) I can earn as little as £200. Other months (August) I earn nothing at all. DH works full time but it's not a well paid job. Most months are in the middle (around the £400 mark).
The problem is that over the course of the year we just about earn enough between us to mean we don't qualify for much govt support. And I do mean just. We do fine on a month when I earn a reasonable amount, and then I put money aside, but a simple thing like having the car serviced or an oil delivery usually takes most of that savings and then the next month I look in my bank account, I've not worked as much and suddenly we only just have enough to cover grocery shopping. Child care is the other issue involved in this - I was bloody lucky because I found a nursery which would take DD on an ad-hoc basis, so days when I didn't work, she didn't go and I didn't have to pay. Most places would require you pay for the place even if you are not using it on a given week and that would have ended up with me paying more for child care than I earnt. I still paid a lot percentage wise out of my salary for child care. Now she's qualified for free govt hours it's made a big difference.

It makes form filling a logisitcal nightmare - stupid things like if someone wants proof of earnings to assess something it can be hard to get an accurate picture. Repaying my student loan, for example - they usually want the last three months worth which might not be an accurate picture of what happens across the year but often the person on the phone that you call to ask for help doesn't get that and trying to explain there is no such thing as an 'average' month is not easy! We just couldn't afford the repayments at the moment but proving it can be hard. Everybody wants an average monthly income and there just isn't one. I can average out last years income by the month, but that's not to say that this year will even come close to that, or it might massively outstrip it.

However, the reason I have kept up with it is two fold.
Firstly, it is a job I quite enjoy in the right sort of field. It's not exactly the job I did before i had DD but it's close enough, keeps my brain ticking over and looks very good on my CV so that when I want to get back into my 'proper' field later I can do so more easily. I put a lot into my career before having a child (I paid to do an MA and did it in my own time for example), loved the career and (I hope) was good at it and I didn't want to give it all up completely, or have to start again.
Secondly, although I love DD more than anything in the universe, I was lonely. We moved when she was 15 months and before then I had gone back to my old job pt, and I was surrounded by friends etc. so on days off there were people with other young children to hang out with. Then we moved and suddenly it was just her and me all day every day, not knowing anyone, or where to go on a rainy day. This job came up and I saw it as a chance to give both her and I a break from each other and for me to have some adult conversation once in a while!

Am now expecting no. 2. I will be considerably better off on mat leave than when I was available to work. C'est la vie. I have massively low moments. I keep telling myself (when we have a bad month and there isn't enough money to pay the bills) that this will be the worst point, while children are young, and that money is an artificial construct of society, not a real thing. Real things are things like health, and love, which my kids have in abundance, and that is what really really matters. Which doesn't necessarily help while standing in the supermarket working out which essential I need more but does stop me sinking completely!

Hopefully in there is something that might help.
I'd say maybe try it. It might be that getting out and doing something helps the anxiety, in which case great. But the financial side might make it worse. In which case, stop. Whatever decision you make doesn't have to be permanent. Hope you find a way through. Good luck.

LadyPessaryPam · 03/03/2013 09:49

I think the consensus is not to do it bigbuttons. It's very sad but I think for your and your childrens own sake it would be a foolish thing to do. Why not hang out for more supply teaching and them maybe a full time teaching post?

babybythesea · 03/03/2013 09:55

Oh, and yes, tax credits etc can be adjusted, but not on a month by month basis. So you have a good month and everything looks fine, and you pay tax accordingly and don't claim the benefits. Then things change and you have no idea if they are going to change back again so you ride it out for a bit, and then phone various people to enquire about claiming something because you are barely surviving, and then by the time you've filled in the form and provided proof, things have changed again. It's not a settled way to live. We have DH's income to give some stability although it's not quite enough on its own. At least though we have some money, and a regular amount coming in.
As you don't have that, maybe it's not the way forward for you.

The other thing I've learnt is that voluntarily leaving a job means you don't qualify for JSA. Which would definitely put you on a worse footing if you tried it and it doesn't work. So ignore my earlier advice of maybe try it and if it doesn't work leave. If you are feeling better having made a decision not to take it, then I think your question is answered!

babybythesea · 03/03/2013 10:01

"With tax credits you only need to tell them if your hours decrease if they have decreased for five weeks in a row.
With regards to Housing Benefits you just provide your payslips if your hours change and they can end your award."

This is the problem though, in a nutshell, dancemom.
It sounds very easy. But your wages decrease for the five weeks in a row, during which time you struggle. So you apply for credits and are awarded them, which takes a couple more weeks while paperwork is filled in and gone through. And at that point you get offered more hours so the tax credits roll in just as you are earning more so you tell them and fill in more forms and now you owe them for the tax credits you got when your salary was a bit higher but this week you're back to not earning much so there isn't much money .... We have done it by doing it all on an annual basis which means we qualify for hardly anything. We have nightmare months but equally we haven't yet been asked to pay anything back.
Same with housing benefits - if your wages go up and down on a week by week basis you just can't plan for anything.

bigbuttons · 03/03/2013 10:26

I'm not taking it!
I can't tell you how much your advice has helped me. I mean really helped. And you've helped my kids too!
I am going to go back to working under 16 hours at a local independent school ( nightmare school) but I do get paid even though housing jsa takes it back off me and some but at least I am 'working', keeping my hand in and that looks better when applying for other jobs and also gives me a chance of getting contacted work at that school too.

OP posts:
insancerre · 03/03/2013 10:30

I think you have made the right decision.
I wouldn't want to work for company that thinks so little of their workers that they are just going to impose new contracts on them without any consultation or thought for the consequences on their families and finances.
Loyalty works both ways.

sneezingwakesthebaby · 03/03/2013 10:33

Aaaah I am so glad to read your update! I definitely think you've made the right decision.

HeySoulSister · 03/03/2013 10:39

Don't forget you would get the £40 a week in work credit and your £250 back to work grant

Also... Housing.... You claim AND you parents help with the rent?

CecilyP · 03/03/2013 11:15

I think you have made the right decision. This kind of irregular work can be OK if there is another more reliable source of family income, but as you are now the sole breadwinner, it would have been unwise to take it. And, given the nature of the work, it was hardly a start to any sort of career progression for you. I think your decision to work less than 16 hours at the independent school is a sensible one. You may not be better off, but it gives you some stability and could lead to better things.

bigbuttons · 03/03/2013 11:18

Thank you allSmile I am looking forward to speaking to the DR tomorrow. Why on earth did I ever think it would be brave to leave an abusive man, leave behind 2 of my kids, move house, be a single parent and try to find work and fail WITHOUT needing some sort of 'help'.
It hasn't been brave as much as daftShock

OP posts:
Wishiwasanheiress · 03/03/2013 11:22

Sounds brave to me.

I think reading ur response earlier and the further posts u have made the right decision. U already sound happier and more confident in this short space of time. Well done. Good luck!

Delayingtactic · 03/03/2013 11:59

Glad to hear your update. I'd never heard of zero hour contracts before MN but they seem the most brutal soul destroying thing a company can legally do.

Also (and a real side point) you didn't go 'cap in hand' to the government. You, just like everybody else in this country, can receive benefits. You don't need to apologise or explain why you've had the number of DC you have - its no one else's business! If I lost my job tmrw and couldn't get other work, I wouldn't feel bad about getting benefits - it's there to help support people, not make them feel worse about themselves.

FaceLikeAPickledOnion · 03/03/2013 12:09

I am on a zero hour contract, I didn't know till I'd started the job. They didn't tell me at the interview but when I explained what hours I could work they just said that's great. Before Xmas I was getting a measly 6hrs a week on national minimum wage, then it dropped to 2-4 hrs a week! Now It's about 12-15 hrs a week, but could change any time. I sometimes don't know if I'm working till the day before. If I get to work and It's quiet, I have to wait (unpaid) till it gets busier to start my shift, or failing that be sent home when I arrive there because they're quiet. If I quit I get nothing. I wish I'd never of started, I can't find another job with fixed contracted hours, I feel trapped.

Please don't take on this job Op

FaceLikeAPickledOnion · 03/03/2013 12:13

Just refreshed, sorry, missed your post about not taking it. Good for you.
You have qualifications (i've got zilch) something better will be around the corner for you Op. Good luck

lovetomoan · 03/03/2013 12:23

I agree with sneezing you will end up worse off.

lovetomoan · 03/03/2013 12:25

I am glad you have decided not to take the job OP. Good luck!

bigbuttons · 04/03/2013 14:02

As it turns out I started throwing up in the night;I have something in common with her MajestyWink. So I couldn't have gone to work anyway.
Then this morning I got an email from the school I am volunteering in asking me to come for an interview for ( a very) temp job I had applied for ages ago.
It would only be a nine week post, unless another comes up within the school, which is quite likely as it's an INA post and quite a big school, so there are always children who would need support.
And even if it doesn't last past nine weeks I can put it down on my cv can't I? And if similar posts come up somewhere else then at least I will have had recent experience and a current reference.Smile

OP posts:
FaceLikeAPickledOnion · 04/03/2013 14:18

:) fab news.

Hope you get better soon

Writehand · 04/03/2013 14:26

I'd strongly advise you to say no. The downsides of a 0 hours contract are massive when it comes to all the various Tax Credits, etc. Zero hours is one thing for a single person, but for anyone who needs to be able to know what they're going to get they're a nightmare. You'll find yourself lurching from crisis to crisis.

There is, as others have said, another thread on the site where a family are in a terrible mess because the bloke's on zero hours contract.

This is not a proper job. Don't accept it. I don't think a zero hours contract should be legal.

EnglishEponine · 04/03/2013 14:42

Really happy for you OP, well done on having even more bravery to not take the 0 hour contract and to get the best for your family.

I have the same medical problems you've mentioned so if you want to talk to someone about it please feel free to inbox me at any time - going to the Dr is a sign of strength not weakness!

xx

INeedThatForkOff · 04/03/2013 15:02

The other thing I've learnt is that voluntarily leaving a job means you don't qualify for JSA. Which would definitely put you on a worse footing if you tried it and it doesn't work.

^^ This.

I know you haven't taken the job OP, and it's brilliant that things are taking a new direction. But I think those suggesting you should just have tried it and then quit if it didn't work out need to be aware of this.

I wonder what proportion of the lower unemployment levels that were made so much of last month was a result of desperate people taking on ill-advised zero hours contracts?

squawkparrot · 01/05/2013 18:07

The courts could help you. The fact you are bringing up the younger children is of help. The courts will give you possession of the house as the welfare of the children is their greatest concern, and if your husband thinks you are threatening to take possession of that his wallet may be prised open a little.

See if you can get legal aid. Go and see a solicitor, usually the first half hour is free, , then legal aid could follow but do it quickly as the legal aid rules are getting much tighter and family law could soon be excluded if not already. Explain your situation to him or her. I'm legally qualified and did pretty well in family law during the degree. Go and see a solicitor or two. Choose the one you think is better.

BakeOLiteGirl · 01/05/2013 19:33

Hi, just to add, I'm a single parent on a zero hours contract. It is incredibly stressful trying to balance things out. I was off work for four weeks really, really ill and of course I had no money coming in. For the first time in five years of renting, I couldn't pay the rent this month.

Xiaoxiong · 01/05/2013 20:12

delaying I like you had never heard of these contracts before I came on MN and I"m shocked it's legal. It seems a bit like indentured servitude to me as you cannot leave without it affecting your eligibility for JSA even if you are not earning anything at all. So much for "making work pay" and all that!

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