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?

You're never going to get a decent answer to this on Mumsnet. You're the devil for considering any benefits even though you'd be entitled😅

People slating the op about how she can manage blah blah, lets not forget this situation could be taking a massive toll on mental health leading to burnout. If that one extra day off helps stop that then she absolutely should do it!

And as for the I'd be embarrassed comment, do fuck off. There's nothing to be embarrassed about and the stigma around universal credit and benefits really needs to end. The majority of people receiving them work, they're not some lazy scumbag as depicted on TV.

Amen to this,

I wouldn't risk a great job op. You're better off getting a cleaner/doing gousto etc to save you time etc.

Having said that, I don't see an issue with mums working part time whilst their kids are young. All this judgement instead of judging all the tax evading super wealthy people.

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.

the OP wants to drop 1 day a week not give up work completely

But if you decide to investigate, there are calculators out there that will let you see if it is financially viable.

Plus I'm sure the OP has payed tax, why should she be embarrassed for claiming benefits? Do the people who think that think they same for pensioners who need additional help?

Oh my, I just wrote a big response and lost it.
Let's clear things up with short version, I used cleaning as an example, as the stress my house is adding to my ever growing issues could be resolved if I simply had more time.
My mum is disabled, claimed benefits most my life, I'm well asware how the system works, and tbh it was rubbish at times. As expected her health got worst, with a range of very serious conditions. I am her only immediate family in the country, and I am more than willing to help, it's very hard to juggle everything I have to do on my own as a single parent in a professional job (yes I make good money that worked hard for). She does without many times because she feels a burden and doesn't want to add to my workload, that shouldn't be the case.
I would much prefer the drop in money to help create time to do what I need to do. I could work 3 days and still claim benefits, I'm unsure total amount I would have, I'm still working it out.
There are many other aspects of my life that are adding into the pressure I have, but I don't want to bore u any further..

You say you love your job OP. Do you love cleaning?

No I hate cleaning but it's becoming a major stress on my life, that I need to find a way to fix, ie getting advise

Agreed but choosing to drop a day at work is totally different to being unable to find enough paid work. The OP earns enough to live on apparently so why should she be supported financially to have a day off to do the cleaning?

Thank you to those who shared their own personal experiences, they have been very interesting to see how others coped with the change.

Money isn't everything, I grew up in poverty most my life, I worked hard and got a professional career, that I continue to work hard at. That's being said, my work doesn't stop when leave the building, yes this helps for child care but I continue working late at night, weekends etc because of this. I am comfortable financially the now, and I'm weighing up pros and cons on, either more time or more money.

Am i laughing?

Tbh pension never crossed my mind at all, will check how that would be effected.
There's a bit more to the story than just cleaning, that's just something I literally never have time for, so used as an example, so no a cleaner isn't the solution

If OP is making good money and drops to 3 days...she will probably still earn too much to claim any benefits ....or if she does it won't be much....lots of people work PT when their kids are small .....can't see what the issue is 🤷‍♀️

As with all thing so life, you must do what is best for you and yours.

Run the calculator at 'EntitledTo'
Enter in different wages etc.

Running yourself ragged is no kind of life, it's just existence. You could end up sick with stress and depression and then you'll end up working 0 days and claiming 100% benefits.

Op I think a lot of the comments on here are from posters who have probably read lots of posts from single mums over the years who can't afford to continue supporting their late teens DCs as the cut in benefits when they left education left them with very little income, but it doesn't sound like that would apply to you. I work a 0.8 with a 3 and 5 year old. I don't claim benefits but I dropped a day 2 years ago and in my experience it hasn't affected my career, I already earn more now than I did working FT because of a promotion and then a pay review to recognise the unpaid overtime I was occasionally doing to meet deadlines. That being said I will return to full time in the next few years as I have my pension to think about. I think it's ok for a short while but I wouldn't go less than 0.8 as ime 0.8 is considered to be almost full time but 0.6 is considered to be part time and is more likely to affect your career.

Despite the outcry on here, Your friend is absolutely right about there being little difference. especially under the old tax credits system. Same basically applies for UC but with a couple of caveats.

What people on low wages (this means under 40k ish typically - but entitlement can with kids and who rent don’t realise is that they have a very high effective marginal tax rate. Meaning for every extra £ they earn, they are paying income tax, NI and crucially money they are entitled to in benefits is being tapered.

Under Tax credits this meant a 73% marginal rate typically, and it’s similar under UC.

Tax credits was particularly astonishing, because you were also not means tested on savings. You could have millions and provided you weren’t earning cash interest on it (I.e. it was fully invested in stock market or similar), you were entitled. UC starts tapering at 6k savings and disappears at 16k - so if you have that, it changes the equation somewhat.

Quite frankly - if you are in a job, not a career with no prospect of high earning potential then yes - it’s probably not a bad idea. People can gasp, but it’s a fairly rational decision to maximise time spent with family etc if you can cut your cloth accordingly to the smaller than you might think drop in income.

Alternatively, you could work full time and whack a shed load in your pension. That will have the same affect on increasing the likelihood of your entitlement to benefits.

None of this is financial advice and you should do your own research.

You want to claim benefits so you can have a cleaner house?

How about you leave the benefits claiming to those who need it to put a roof over their heads?

It’s ridiculous that this is even an option. Or should always pay to work.

Have u actually read all the replies?

That should have said - entitlement to benefits can go quite high into the income spectrum - it’s quite possible to still be entitled to Tax Credits at 60k (let’s say 4 kids, one disabled with severe) - so that marginal rate can go as higher than 100% if you’re earning in the 50-60k bracket.

40% inc tax
3% NI
41p tax credits taper
33p child benefit taper.

You can be worse off earning 60k than 50k in this bracket!! In that case, of course it makes sense to drop working a day, or sheltering the income in a pension. UC is not much different.

Thank you for being so informated, I'm going to work out exact finances first.

She is factoring all the additional grants and payments from gov for low income families, this may help add up a little

Fact is - it doesn’t always pay to work. Because of the taper rate on benefits, lower in the income spectrum if you add the ‘costs of going to work’ etc into the mix, you can end up with minuscule amounts extra or even - as I posted above - be worse off because of the effective marginal rate.

Each individual has to make their own rational decisions.

Did you totally miss the mental health part of my comment? Which the op then confirmed to be the case? Ah yes of course you did because then you can't criticise her or others who chose to do the same 🙄.

Because I’m going to get beaten up on here for posting, here are two articles explaining what I said, one directly from the Gov.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/reducing-the-universal-credit-taper-rate-and-the-effect-on-incomes/

policyinpractice.co.uk/93-tax-effective-tax-rates-explained/

Exactly, our discussion was around how she done less days, more time with her daughter and the gov added money in a number of ways to help her, where I work full time, get crazy amount deductions, and absolutely no help in other areas.

I will have to take finances into account but it was mainly if people found the change positive or negative etc