Universal credit help please

[OntheWaves40]

I need to make a decision by tomorrow as I already agreed and now i’m having second thoughts.
I’ve been given the chance to take a step forward in my career but it means reducing hours/pay in meantime. I will need housing benefit to make ends meet therefore universal credit. It says it will help me get more hours. What are the realities of this? Should I stay put in my NMW full time job or reduce for the 6 month period and what will the universal credit people do?

No one?

I’m sorry I don’t know the answer, I do know that one of the questions is have you stopped working in the last 12 months but I don’t know if they ask if you have deliberately reduced your hours.
I know the commitments you have to agree to to get UC depend on your individual circumstances so if you for instance work 24 hours but it’s deemed that you could work full time you will be told to increase earnings and have to be seen to be doing that by applying for jobs.

Are you single /claiming jointly?

Do you have children? Are they in childcare?

Go to Money Matters section. There are lots of threads on UC.

You can work part time on UC but you will be required to earn a minimum income threshold (otherwise they push to work more hours, in theory). The threshold is based on 35 X NMW per week (25 hours if a single parent with school aged kids). If you can earn more than this, you should be ok on UC but bear in mind that what you get from UC will be dependent on your income per month, rent amount, children, disability, etc.

One of the benefits of UC is that it's not a rigid as the old system. Your work coach can bypass the system in some areas. It will depend on how many hours you're doing, how many you want to do and what they expect you to be doing.

I'm expected to work 24 hours but because my job is very secure, offers occasional overtime, is slightly over minimum wage and may increase to 20 hours soon they've effectively waived that for me as the pros of stable employment outweigh the cons of me looking for a new job just to satisfy that condition.

You're very short on time but if you can discuss it with your work coach you may find that you'll be in a similar situation to me. They are quite good now at looking at your long term prospects over just shoving people into any old job

Sorry, I meant to say that I work 16 hours and they're ok with this.

My area was one of the first to bring in UC so they advisors are now very well trained which I think helps

You need to do a benefits calculator.

There are too many variables for us to tell you without you explaining the family set up and finances.

Entitled to is pretty good.

UC/JCP will assess your capability to work full time (children/cater commitments) and if you're working less than they think you should they could 'force' you to look for more work, or change job or go on their courses to help your CV appear more appealing or eventually even sanction you for not meeting your earning potential.
If you have dependent children or if you're a carer, there is leniency and sanctions are unlikely.

The benefit calculators are hugely inaccurate in my experience but entitled to is the best of a bad lot.

It might be worth checking your council LHA bands to see how much you could get and how much you will have to top up.