UC: After a quick heads up

[MiMiChuna]

Being migrated over to UC from CTC.

Have 1st appointment tm to discuss initial agreement contract.

What's the typical expectation for lone parents with no support network? Looking for real life experiences, not unhelpful opinions & judgements.

My DC are in age brackets 13+ and 9-12.

My initial thoughts are no weekend / evening work. School hours. Not full time (this would break me mentally on top of everything else I have to manage & support singlehandedly).

Also I'm returning to college part-time in Sept (1 day / wk, continuation of course I was on last year, doing the next level, to lead to hopefully a new career path in finance / accountancy). If that has any bearing.

Want to be prepared and realistic in relation to people in similar personal situation.

FWIW comparing CTC to UC in theory UC pays more, but I can manage on CTC level of payments if it meant less expectation so I can keep supporting my children & being there for them as there's is zero other persons to step in.

Much appreciated. Feeling a bit stressed now the appt is close.

Who looked after them after those ages if you'd no support? This is a part of my issue. It's still very young to be responsible for getting themselves to & from school every day in all weathers sometimes with several heavy / bulky bags. We've no school bus service to fall on. Only walking, if not driven. A fair solid 40-45 min walk each way. That's a lot on top of a standard school day over 7.5hrs, plus homework each night.

@DrCoconut You get it. Thanks. I hope your appt goes smoothly too.It's like a different species to tax credits. You're exactly right, it's intrusive & judgemental vs CTC. The migration... I'm hoping it allows a transition period to adjust too. Such completely different expectations. It's going to change my entire family's life, the only life they've ever known. My kids don't do change well either, I'm all they have if I'm not around there's no one to step in, like you've not got either. No parental help (one deceased, one ill & resident in carehome), no siblings to help, my ex has had nothing to do with our DC since the day we split (his choice to drop them ovetnight) and lives hundreds of miles away now. And there are NO wrap around childcare services around me for kids past primary school. It's unfair to assume one size fits all. We don't all have the same support to do what is being asked by UC. Without other massive implications. Mainly for our kids.I'm just trying to understand how the rules are applied to ppl whose circumstances aren't the main. What's the deviation allowance. Is there one!?If others can juggle things better than me in a similar situation to mine, fair play.

Unhelpful

It may take some juggling but surely 25 hours a week with kids the age of yours isn't too unreasonable? Or am I massively missing something?

How old is your oldest child OP?

I'm a complete lone single parent with 4 children and work full time. I had to move the youngest 2's school to one further away which had a nursery collection option for wrap around care.

I was a single mum to DD from birth, my mum and dad lived 70 miles away and worked full time and the father had no involvement.

I was in a pilot area for UC so was one of the first people put on it and don't really have any experience of CTC as I was only on it for about 5 months.

On UC I went back to work when DD was 5 months old 3 days a week, UC paid 80% of childcare, we were fine.

When DD was 2 I went back 5 days a week, UC still paid childcare, now DD is 6, I have moved closer to my parents and they have retired but DD still goes to aftershock club 3 days, I pick her up one day (I start early every day to finish early one day) and her grandparents pick her up one day.

Honestly I'm not going to say it was easy but it was fine and it was right imo.

Without sounding harsh because I do understand change is very difficult and if you are used to doing something to suddenly flip your routine on its head is very scary but I fail to see why you need to work school hours with 2 kids who are either both or nearly both in high-school?

Even if full time is too hard to start with, school hours is an unrealistic expectation.

Is it kind of an unspoken thing about the monetary earnings being the focus? I genuinely can't find a reference to it anywhere other than threads on here saying that work coaches are likely to leave you alone if you earn a decent amount over say 15 hours.

I can't think a parent needs to be home whilst the kids are at school tbh. If the child is sick you just stay home with parental leave. If you drop a child to breakfast club at 8 then work until 3.30 then pick up child or do as I did and pay a registered childminder to pick kid up from s hool and I collected at about 5.15am. you will get help towards that childcare. If you work 4 days a week you will more than.cover 25 hours. The other day you could go to college.

I was a latchkey kid from the last year of primary school as both my parents worked full-time. Only you know how sensible your kids are though. My mum got home about 7pm and by then I would have done dinner for me and little brother, done our home work walked the dog and bathed brother and got him ready for bed.

Yes, the hours is just referring to how many hours you'll need to work at minimum wage. It's a good system really as it should incentivise people to work hard and move up the salary/career ladder.

That's what I thought then. A PP said it was definitely based on hours so I was confused.

I'm a single parent, their dad has contact but I'm responsible for the daily grind and I don't rely on him for childcare. My kids are 5 and 8. I work 30 hours a week. I do every morning drop off, they go to after school club 2 days a week, my mum picks up the other 2 days and I pick up on Fridays as that's my earlier finish. It will continue like this until they finish primary school. They will have to let themselves in when they start secondary school. I use a combination of holiday clubs, annual leave and my mums help in school holidays. I claim 85% of childcare back.

It is hard work. UC don't care very much about personal circumstances like not having any help. When the kids are in school they expect you to be working and using childcare.

I used to do 22.5 hours a week until earlier this year when I got a different job. I didn't do it for UC's purposes because I've always earned enough to be left alone, but I wanted a better pension, and to be able to take a mortgage on with just my income. Long term, it works out much better.

It is worth thinking what is better for you and your family in the long run. When your children finish education all benefits will stop overnight. It is much better if you can gradually increase your working hours up to this point so by the time this happens your income is mostly from your wages and then losing the benefits won't come as too much of a shock.

Do any of your children have additional needs?

If so, carers aren't required to work.

Can you look for work similar to your college hours as this obviously a doable option.

Mtg today.
Went OK (I think).
Expectation is less than the 25 hrs / wk I've seen & heard.
CW seemed to understand the impact of the situation on my children if I wasn't around for them, lack of childcare for older children in our area, lack of flexible PT school hrs work, vulnerability of my kids if they were regularly left unattended eves / wknds, evidence of willingness to work in my current zero hrs adhoc job (held for a few yrs) & prep for better paid work in my professional studies qualification course.
Maybe it's just initial transition flexibility with coming across from ctc. But whatever, it wasn't as drastic as what I'd heard / read yet so l wanted to update in case it helps someone else in a similar situation who finds this thread.

What's your professional course?

@Niftyswiftie finance (accountancy aat)

I don't think they differentiate,

My DIL, a single parent with a 7YO, was working 29.25 hours pw as a TA. They averaged out the hours, because it's term time only, and the way they did it came out below 25 hours pw. They called her in for an interview and told her that she had to do more hours.

She's doing an extra day now, so they've stopped hassling her.

Bear in mind though that UC is always about the money, more than the hours, so if you're earnings are more than NMW x 25, they should (in theory) not be bothered.

Someone needs to explain that to a dickhead at my local job centre.

My friend is on ESA, and in the work-related activity group. She is also carer for her son, who has severe MH issues, and gets carer's allowance.

She was called in for an interview and told she had to start thinking about getting back to work and that they'd look for suitable courses for her to get her "work ready". They told her repeatedly that being a carer made no difference.

Next time she gets called in, I'm going to go with her, armed with relevant extracts from the legislation.

Do you work in a finance role? You need practical experience to complete AAT.
I never bothered with AAT , I just did ACCA alongside working (you need practical exp with ACCA too). Would that work better for you? ACCA is more well thought of and you'd be a qualified accountant at the end of it unlike AAT.

You will be able to manage, it's hard but you will! I have two children in your age brackets, one with send, and I work full time in a professional role. I have no support network, friends but they all have their own lives but for the day to day... it's just me. I'm exhausted and drained but I manage

You have to do 35 hours of care and the person you care for be in receipt of disability benefits but if you meet those criteria then you definitely don't have to work. It's on Turn to us, Carers UK and government websites. Good luck.

@gratefulheart I take my hat off to you. How do you manage the school holidays? Are your children home alone / unsupervised most of summer? I can't get my head around leaving kids of this age alone so long & so regularly. It makes them vulnerable in various ways.

@Niftyswiftie aat is easier to access where I live, and the level 2 felt like a good way to test if accountancy could be for me. Also, I have been able to get aat fully funded so far due to low income which has saved thousands in fees. I am seeing it as hopefully (as well as a taster) a way to get my foot in the door of the industry, altho this is looking like a challenge as even basic jobs want experience. Catch 22.

I can't see any training providers near me for coma / acca. It seems much harder to see how someone does them if it's not thru an employer. They're not run as regular courses near me anyway. Keeping acca / cima in mind as potential long term goals once I'm in the field. The level 3 aat provides qualified bookerkeeper status I believe so I just need to get a break into a role.