Full time or part time and benefits?

[DancingintheDark17]

I'm currently a working full time single mum, thinking about positively of changing to part time.

I love my work, decent salary, good hours = no paid child care needed, lots of paper work done at home when DS in bed. Being committed 5 days is really taking its toll on priorities, my son and work are always sorted, which leaves me running around with every spare minute trying to clean. Having the extra days at home would creat a perfect balance, but knowing the drop in wages it was only ever a dream.

However my friend recently explained how she's retuning part time after maternity leave, as she will be entitled to x, y, z and when added together is nearly a full time wage.

If I made the change it would permanent, and to move back I would need to reapply.

Any advice? Experience?

Do you really have the "luxury" of going part-time & topping up shortfalls in your chosen lifestyle with benefits?
What about later on in life, when your child leaves home? What about pension contributions or savings for outgoings on larger items?
If I have interpreted your post correctly, you appear to have everything sorted and organised except cleaning/domestic chores. In your position I would stay full time & invest in outsourcing the domestic stuff.

I don't understand, you're perfectly capable of working full time without paying for childcare, yet you'd rather work part time so you can claim benefits? Why would you take from the system like that when you aren't in desperate need?

Also agree with PP.

Benefits are designed to help people through a period of hardship or unemployment not as a supplement to allow you to work part time. If you want a full time wage you need to work full time hours.

I'd be embarrassed to claim benefits if I didn't absolutely need to

YABVU. Benefits are not to support a lifestyle choice. My goodness, I can’t believe this even needs to be said.

You want to claim benefits so you can do housework at leisure? That's not what it's for and no I wouldn't do it.

Benefits aren’t there to supplement your lifestyle. They’re there for people who can’t work for whatever reason. If you need some time to yourself, book a couple of days annual leave or ask your mom for a sleepover.

how old is DS?

Well but it's not just the drop in wages, what about the drop in pension contribution - are you factoring that in?

Also, if that main issue is trying to find time to clean then unless you earn close to minimum wage wouldn't you still be better off financially if you hired a cleaner for a few hours a week and outsourced a few things?

As going down 1 day - even with benefit would be a drop in wages. Can you afford to employ a cleaner a few hours a week while working 5 days to take some strain from you?

You would need to look at figures OP on a benefit calculator. How many days would you consider dropping? Do you have family support? Does dad have an input?

Hi OP, you’re up very early as am I.

you don’t say if you ate a single parent of not which can make a difference to it all.

I was for a while a lone parent with an autistic child and I ended up doing exactly this as I needed to give him more time than I could working full time.

First thing to say is that life when benefits are needed to top up income is no fun. UC is a nightmare and they do look at why you’re not working full time, That said, I’ve recently reduced my hours again as DS is struggling and nobody has questioned it or me,

Secondly and perhaps more importantly I didn’t realise how much it would knock my self confidence. I know it sounds strange but retuning full time after years of part time work was a struggle emotionally. I felt very out of touch with it all and struggled for a good six months afterwards.

Thirdly people will judge you (just look at the responses you’ve had so far). Funnily enough some judge you for making a perfectly legal decision while they have no problem with any MP playing the tax or other system with the comment “they are doing nothing illegal”.

I faced judgement at the time and that was with a disabled child.

So my advice is to weigh it all up and then make the decision which suits your family needs best and no regard for anyone else’s opinion.

I work 22 hours a week in a school. Single mum. Minimum wage. I get over 1k benefits a month. If you work.part time 16 hours you get full benefits, if you're a single parent. It works well!

Single mum here
i went part time
absolutely no regrets. Oddly enough, having the extra available time does equate to savings that I couldn’t have made when working full time ie time to research best price before buying, time to sell anything we don’t need on eBay, time to batch cook much less pricey meals.

does it equal what I would make if full time? No!! But combined with the massive increase in quality of life for myself and to my children - no question, yes!!!

That was tax credits
under UC hours worked is irrelevant

all about earnings

It depends on your salary and the age of your child. I was a single parent with a 1 year old and a 5 year old and I worked p/t. My tax credit top up was higher than if I had increased my hours at work. As my children have got older and my salary has increased the balance has shifted and I've recently increased my working hours because my tax credits have dropped so much. As a new claimant you would be on UC, which I think is more hassle than tax credits. You need to do all the calculations quite carefully especially if your job would make you reapply to back to full time hours.

I would agree with this as well. Since going back up to nearly full time I have found my expenses have gone up all over and I've had less time to be organised such as sales shopping, batch cooking etc.

Ask yourself if you will be happy to have 'cleaned your house at leisure' when you can't afford to retire or are in poverty in retirement.

I often read threads where women are panicking that they have no pension or cannot retire when they are struggling to keep working and think back to these threads where there pension is totally ignored over more leisure time.

Is this a joke?

If you have a “decent salary”, even if PT you might not be entitled to anything. I dropped down from FT to 2 days a week and was still earning way over the threshold for any benefits bar child benefit which I wouldn’t have been eligible before (but am still not due to husband).

However, due to the drop in tax, NI, (and student loan and pension if applicable) then sometimes the difference in take home isn’t huge. A 60% deduction in my hours was more like a 30% deduction in take home.

Let’s give the OP the Benefit if the doubt that when she makes this huge decision, particularly as a single parent, she does think about the longer term issues!

It’s on household income
so benefits weren’t being calculated on your two days
they were being calculated on your two days PLUS your husbands full time salary

Longer term issues have been mentioned,

Yes, if you rely on benefits it’s likely to be a shock when the children grow up and they all stop.

Thats why keeping your hand in the career path is useful, you’re keeping up to date and you’re still earning with the opportunity of progressing.

@tomatoandherbs I know, I didn’t actually apply for benefits, but even without my husband’s salary I wouldn’t be entitled to anything.