To not want to work more hours? (Universal Credit)

[Abneyandteal19]

Hi
Have never claimed benefits before except child benefit as we've always earns over threshold, situation now is....
3DC ages 4 (preschool) 6 and 8.

I work part time professional job management - but job share 15hrs PW. Income £14500

DH professional job in region of £60-65k has never been out of work until now. His contracts ended in Dec. Had a job lined up for Jan- company funding issues have meant they've delayed his start indefinitely. Of course he is desperately searching.

Done all calculations and looks like we are entitled to some UC, so filled in all forms. Have to agree to commitments, DH has to look for work log jobs applied for work coach etc...all fine no problem

But my commitments have come back with I must agree to look for more hours work. I am not sure I can do this... my job is job share split 40/60 so there are no more hours. I have my preschooler everyday I don't work.

Main point is we were just looking for a bit of help for a few months until DH starts and then gets paid for a new job. Chances are he will absolutely get one in next 3 months and then of course will will cease claiming anything and then me working part time will be totally fine again.

It's not that I don't want to work more just not that easy to find something for a few hours a week that will pay more than childcare will cost? Any thoughts/experience? So AIBU not to want to work more hours?

So despite having a full employment record until now, and having paid appropriate NI contributions entitling him to benefit, you’re suggesting that he should forego it in favour of using up saving instead ? OK then

savings are for rainy days, surely? If OP was anything other than a working family on a reasonable (potential) income, she’d have been blasted.

Claim what you are entitled to, follow the rules. Stop moaning they don’t fit your situation. Those rules don’t fit the situation many of us find ourselves in but ‘cos we lack ambition (Jesus fucking wept at that one), we have no choice but to follow the rules. Or use our savings. Why should that be different for the OP?

Well he could choose to claim New style JSA for six months based on his NI contributions and only he would have to job search or they can jointly claim UC ( likely to be significantly more money ) but in return will both need to agree to commitments possibly both searching for work. The choice is theirs. If they don't want to both agree to commitments then perhaps he should just claim the contributions based benefit.

@lookwhatyoudidthere

You are wasting your time with that argument.

There is a reason state dependemcy is at 54% and growing.

The entitled attitude of these folks when it comes to work and benefits is nothing short of corrosive.

They want financial handouts and they want "someone else to pay for it". That mentality is now pervasive in the country, which does not bode well for productivity.

The entitled, hands-out nature of half of the commenters on here makes you almost miss the workhouses.

OP simply does not need hand outs. She just doesn’t fancy working. She’s abusing the system (‘I’ve been paying in, so I’m entitled’) and is the reason we’re a failing country.

Deliveroo/Uber Eats/JustEat are all recruiting and all are zero-hours on a flexible basis with the ability to start within weeks.

Either you or DH could easily be delivering around childcare.

She has a job.

She has less than half a job.
And he has none. They can look for work.

Aren't you a SAHM living off your very wealthy husband? Why can't you?

The "half job" was because she was working around childcare like most women do. It makes more sense for him to look for a full time job and they claim some UC in the meantime.

It's a extremely weird to stalk my posts and make it about me, but the working husband is the key difference there, obviously.

I was just commenting on the irony.

Don't think you understand irony.

Im sorry but this is what savings are for not benefits. If one of you loses their job, the other steps up, you can't just have a whole family with 2 adults only working 15 hours a week between them.

Can't you just take some self employment work that doesn't need extra training etc & can be quickly dropped? Offer to babysit friends children etc, take up a few hours cleaning work (this can pay pretty well).

There's very little training or onboarding for a couple of evening shifts in a bar or pub - my teenage neighbour handed an application in one day and started the following day.

Yes its a bit crap but your DH is unemployed, you've got to make do for a few months.

Mumsnet is bonkers sometimes. Here we have two people who have full employment records. The OP is fitting hours around childcare and newly unemployed DH is actively looking to find work. They will both have paid contributions to entitle them to benefits while they sort themselves out. And yet they are being treated like scroungers here - called selfish and entitled, and that ‘this is what savings are for’. Some have even suggested the OP doesn’t want to work, when she’s already working. The OP has only posted for advice about the work commitments she has been asked to make as part of the UC claim because their situation is slightly different. My advice is don’t ask on mumsnet if you don’t want to be blasted as entitled. This is something to discuss with your work coach - they’re not unreasonable and if you explain your circumstances they may be able to suggest alternatives.

Just a bit rich that a SAHM can live off her wealthy husband's wages yet another mum for a very short time can't live off the benefits the government gives for these scenarios. Guessing she isn't allowed to see her children?

FWIW I didn't stalk you. I remember you replying to a thread yesterday.

Living off a husband is very different than 2 people expecting to live off of handouts rather than get a job. If people want time to look for a job they'd prefer, they ought to save more. The children will be just with the other parent for a while until he lands another big important job.

On the one hand you are right, on the other you can see why some people would find it galling that a person who lives off her wealthy husband is lecturing others about their work ethic and savings.

Well perhaps one day I shall create my own thread so you can dissect my circumstances, but alas, today is not that day.

How is MN bonkers?

Op is the one whining about needing to work 1 hour extra a week.
They have a sum total of 4K to pay the mortgage and then just Ops wages to live on which won't meet their outgoings.

Instead of whining they have a choice
Pick up 1 hours extra work and get UC
He gets a short term job to carry them over
She gets more work until he has a permanent position.

It's the Ops attitude that's bonkers here
I'm not going to do anything to help my situation
Bizarre

@Infusedwithchamomileandmint said Pick up 1 hours extra work and get UC

What's the significance of one more hour?

No, but it's too much to expect people not to analyse your responses based on information you have volunteered.

And of and when I attempt to claim UC you can compare and critique my life.

Benefit threads on MN are always bonkers - so much judgement here for people claiming benefits they’re perfectly entitled to, having worked and contributed. OP and her DH are not playing the system and relying on the benefits system for exactly the purpose for which they were intended. OP has already explained her difficulties with finding more work and the cost of childcare. As I and several others have already said, MN isn’t the place for balanced advice - their work coach is.

I'm not criticising your life. I'm just explaining that it will make some people less inclined to give weight to your criticism of other people's work ethics.

The ‘handouts’ you are talking about are contribution based benefits to which they are perfectly entitled. And we’re all tax payers - even benefit claimants. Divide and rule is alive and well on MN - the Tories would be proud of some of the opinions expressed on this thread. While we’re fighting among ourselves, we’re leaving the real culprits for the mess the country is in alone.

Mumsnet threads are indeed bonkers: with people like yourself lazily reusing the word ‘entitled’. There is literally no need whatsoever for OP to use tax payers money in her circumstances.

The culture of ‘entitlement’ because you’ve ‘paid in’ treats taxes as the savings plan that you’ve used on luxuries. It takes money from the truly needy, in poverty and needing healthcare. That’s why people get angry. It’s theft from others because you don’t want to work. Just because you can game the system doesn’t make you honest.

Could she work and avoid claiming benefits? There’s rarely been an easier example to show she 100% could. Stop dismissing people as bonkers when you yourself seem to believe in the magic money tree.