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?

Wrong.

OP have you not got any savings?

@orangegato It is totally fair.
The benefits system is there to help people that can't help themselves.
If someone earns £50k in one month they can certainly afford to pay back the benefits they've been given over the preceeding 11 months!

Get DH to mow lawns, wash and iron for people or do other cash in hand hobby jobs in a time table that suits his job search. Can he work at McDonalds?

OP have you not got any savings?

Yes, this.
It sounds like OP's DH is a contractor. The number one rule of contracting is that you don't assume you will be continuously employed and build up a savings buffer to cover yourself between jobs, when you are sick etc.
Covering the gaps between contract jobs is not what UC is designed for.

If you want to claim UC then you have to do what it says. If you don't want to do that then don't claim. You would both apply and then both record your monthly income and then you will be advised to look for more hours etc.

It could take your DH months to find work, and if you don't have any savings, then you would need to work full time yourself.

Also, how can interviewers demand he is there instantly? If he were in an office 9-5 he wouldn't be able to just walk out.

Now is also the time to cut back on as much as possible, so go through your bank statements and see where you can cut things out and reduce spending.

It is a shame that you don't have savings to fall back on, so I would really look at that ongoing and try to put money away for situations like this if you can.

Get some work for a few months or a bit extra where you already work until your husband finds a job. It might not be what you want, but it is what I would expect the benefits system to require someone to do i.e. it is a safety net when it is not possible to work or find work.

I can understand your pov.
What a complete waste of time for a company to go through the motions of advertising, hiring, interviewing, training. Just to have rhe person leave a few months later. What exactly is the point of that? If I owned a business it would annoy me but then so would all the applications from people who have no desire to actually want the job just meeting uc quota.
If people were paid enough to live on we wouldn't be in these situations.

If he had signed a contract and had a start date they should be paying him his notice period for pulling the job.

While your DH isn't working you could take a second part time job? He is there to look after the children.

Then once he is back in work drop the second job.

He could also take on some casual work or any stop gap job while he seeks a new position.

Of course you are expected to maximise your own income and reduce your dependency on the state .

In all honesty I’d agree then apply for jobs within your current field. I think you get a month or so leeway before they get very firm about job hunting. Your DH should get a fairly chunky tax rebate in April too. I’m wondering if it might make more sense for your dh to apply for contribution based esa which would mean no commitments for you.

I do think people are being unnecessarily harsh here your dh will of been paying £1500 a month in tax/ NI for years. You’ll get what £500 quid a month for a few months?

Id also put in an application for child benefit if you don’t get it due to his previous earnings.

Benefits are not there to enable the wife of an unemployed man to have the luxury of working part time hours.

This. As a family, you need more income. You have two capable adults, so both can look for work, and that's a reasonable expectation if you want to access welfare benefits.

If you find work first, your DH can look after the DC. There is no reason he couldn't still continue to look for employment at the same time. Yes, you'll need to sort childcare for interviews etc, but presumably you could take annual leave or find some other solution. If, as you say, he is very employable and finds a new job very quickly, then there won't be an issue... you can stop looking/quit any extra hours that you may have taken on.

It's perfectly reasonable to choose to rely primarily on one income if that works for your family, but you can't expect the state to perpetuate that arrangement at the expense of the taxpayer. Welfare benefits are not there to sustain your personal lifestyle choices, they are there for people who really need them because of their personal circumstances.

There are a few who said their job won't allow them to do more hours, so according to them that will be their reason when UC try to ask them to increase 🤷🏻‍♀️
One in particular had another baby, which she wanted so badly apparently but waited it out to see what accommodation the council would give lol.
She is one of many who thought that having a baby would help with UC demands. Because of the rule of having a child 3 and under.
But that is all changing now.

She says she is on her own, but she has a partner of 8/9 years. Who stayed until recently 5-6 days a week I think this is disgusting. When there are some of us who are actually on our own.

He uses her flat lol to have his kids there for contact time that he paid all that money for in court, to have them.
Because he has nowhere else to have them. I'm not saying this is every couples mindset. But you will get couples who are upset that they get nothing but single parents do.
Usually two can do more than one on their own 🤷🏻‍♀️
I'm not saying all couples shouldn't get anything it depends on their circumstances.

Plus there is still child benefit if not above threshold and help with child care fees, though I know they are moving things over to UC apparently, but you can still claim as far as I know for childcare, again there will be conditions/amount they will pay, and what you would need to pay.

I see nothing wrong with your plan. Properly job searching is nearly a full time role itself - applications can take around 3 hours each for professional roles. And recruiters will require your husband to be available at the drop of a hat.

Go for the UC. Apply for jobs, but make it clear whatever hours there are must fit around your family's needs.

I do agree with you however, it's unlikely you'll have finished onboarding before you get to a first shift!

Exactly
This idea that the DH is too special to look after his own child while job hunting is ludicrous!
What about SAHM applying for jobs, do they get to say they can't look after their own DC or actually people who are employed but job hunting.
Batshit 😂
Right now your DH is unemployed
Either you get another PT job pronto or he gets something temporary whilst job hunting.

Why don't you have any savings OP? This is exactly why you always should have enough savings for 3 months salary if needed. It's not up to the tax payer to fund you for 3 months because you didn't save up for any gaps like this.
If you couldn't afford to build up savings, then you didn't have the luxury of being part-time?

If you want to claim UC you follow the rules, surely? Otherwise you don’t. They can’t have bespoke rules for every families different situation. Whilst that might be a good idea in practice it would be incredibly expensive to administrate.

In what way are they not being paid enough to live on? OP chooses to work part time! And husband didn’t bother saving while earning 60k in a temp job… not really them being underpaid is it

Thankyou!
This goes with when I was saying about couples who choose to live apart, but don't really, then expect their life choices to be paid for by the state.
Go and have kids and still part living apart, and benefiting from that. One in particular her partner works full time doing ok for himself.
I wonder if they are using the opportunity to save and move, but either way it's still fraud as far as I'm concerned.

What annoys me is apparently if your mail goes elsewhere lol this means you live in that place, not at all!
I know loads of people who have their mail going elsewhere and they don't live there.

Ok so much to digest

@WithACatLikeTread
I do earn over £1080 per month on my 15 hrs. Do you think this will be enough?

To those saying get a FT job- it's hard to see why giving up a solid redundancy proof career with excellent pension, benefits, health insurance, 6 weeks annual leave and hybrid working with flexibility to work around kids (eg I spread my hours over more days and work school hours) would be wise in order to work 30 hours in a supermarket?

I have worked so hard to keep my career going whilst having kids and negotiated the best part time deal I'm ever going to get (due to hard work on my part)

But I guess if the only choice to do this is not claim then we will withdraw our claim.

To those saying how sure are you about DH getting a job - I would say within 3 months there's a 95% chance. Even if he takes a lower rate of pay/short term contract which he will do.

In terms of child benefit- yes we didn't claim once my DH earned over 50k I just meant it was my only prior experience of benefits.

In terms of DH job he finished at end of Nov so last pay check covered Dec. Had a job lined up for Jan so we knew we'd have had one month with no pay check and could have covered that.

Savings- we have some- about 4K which we are using to pay our mortgage as even with UC it won't cover that. I wish we had more but DH hasn't earned this well for long- Covid was hard on us- we've only just got to the point of not having crazy nursery fees and the cost of living has meant there's just less to save.

Of course DH would work in McDonald's but equally that wouldn't be his first choice and he wants to give it a bit more time before considering that. He's got 2 interviews lined up currently and has signed up to some agencies for project work in his field. So there is hope...

So 🤔 what do you suggest single parents do? As they still have to look for work or be available for interviews etc 🤷🏻‍♀️

just need help for a couple of months to get back on our feet and in my mind that is exactly what benefits were designed for. I would say we would be on this for a max of 4 months

No that is what savings are for. If you need benefits and it requires you to work, then that is what you have to do no matter what your mind thinks. You don’t know if it will be 4 months anyway.

When do her children see their mother then?

I’m sorry, I’m normally really sympathetic, but I agree with this.

He can look for work in the evenings when the kids are in bed anyway, on top of their nursery hours, if your working a bit more “eats in” to job hunting time - it needed slow down his job hunting as he can make time to do this around his children.

There's no reason your DH can't look after the kids. Using the possibility of an interview to mean he has to be free all day is silly. If he was looking for a job while in work they would agree a time he could get off, so adjusting to a convenient time is normal and part of the process.

So you are being unreasonable to expect UC but not to follow the rules and look for more work when it's easy for you to do so. Most of us have worked all our lives, UC is to help those who can't get work, not those who choose not to.

Whilst I can understand your thinking here, I don't really like that UC is set up to work as you would like it to in your current situation.

It can't really be flexed for individual cases as such, but more of a blanket set of rules applied.

Realistically, this is where savings come into play here. And I say this from a point of never having been in the position of taking any benefits whatsoever.

As also mentioned, you need to check the child benefit levels as your husband was earning above that threshold.