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?

Just go throught the motions , there are plenty of politicions , their mates , Academys , companies , utilities fleecing the system . They often get a knighthood . Keep the job that works for you for a few months then review.

Hi OP

Some people are utterly deluded. They cannot fathom that any of us could fall on hard times. Life is not fair and some of us have far more difficulties than others, through not fault of our own.

Sadly, the post-war consensus of a safety net has been eroded at an alarming rate and state support is now almost wholly punitive. This is partly down to the government and media waging a war on anyone who needs state support. However, state support hasn’t been at sustenance levels for decades. It is not a life style choice unless you want to starve to death. The general public have been duped into thinking people on benefits are living a great life and receiving easy money. This is categorically untrue.

The government would much prefer you take a minimum wage job regardless of whether or not it limits your DH’s ability to look for a far better paid job. This short-sightedness is plain to see across government and policy. Our government doesn’t do long-term. Some of the rules around UC are utterly nonsensical and make life harder for claimants to better themselves in the medium to longer-term. But no one cares because anyone needing state support has been incorrectly labelled ‘a scrounger’. As I am sure you’ll now appreciate, that simply isn’t the case.

I would accept your commitments for now and do whatever is asked of you. It takes 5 weeks to set up UC and receive your first payment anyway. If your husband can find work in the next 3 months I think you’ll be fine. If he is still struggling after 3 months then you can reassess your options. Good luck.

OP, this is a contractor position, many contractors would work for years for the same client - not necessarily a few months here and there. And it all sounds quite mad to me that a contractor with a contract that was not extended wants to claim welfare in between contracts.

I had several contracts that fell through like that, sometimes at the last moment - you turn up at the office on your first day, but the manager has changed and the new one doesn't want you anymore - that's it, home you go. Had a few contracts that were terminated with 24h notice as the project no longer was needed. Had quite a few invoices that were eventually never paid so the last month was working for free. This is the risk you're taking for a higher reward.

If your DH earns 65K as a contractor, a permanent equivalent would be 35-40K, right?

@TweetypiePez they haven’t “fallen in hard times” - her husband took a risk for a contract position - that would
have paid more - and the entirely foreseeable outcome od that risk has happened.

that is a shame for the op personally. It is not what the welfare state is set up to support.

I could earn more as a contractor but I have a less paid position because it’s permanent.

150 hours a week spare, of course they can find flexible work between them. You can't opt out of working altogether because it's not a 9-5 paying what you want. Even if he only gets 7 hours a week, that's 7 more than none.

They currently have 2 parents available to pick children up etc.
So, yes, they can be very flexible until the point where one of them actually starts a new job.

Obviously this is area dependent but retail/hospitality round here are taking people in within a couple of weeks of applying. They are also taking on people who can't be fully flexible e.g. students around study commitments. Plus OP's story (she works part time in her main job but wants some extra hours) is totally plausible and doesn't scream that she will leave straight away.

The main thing is that neither OP or her DH is actually even looking for this type of job, so they have no idea how easy or not it would be to get one.

@Abneyandteal19 I'm an academic who has done a lot of work on the welfare system and I have on occasion been a UC claimant.

There is a misconception that the welfare state is about paying in and therefore being entitled to a bit of help when you need it. It isn't. It hasn't been since the number of people it needs to support began massively exceeding the number of people paying in. So the amount you've paid in taxes/NI historically and how long you plan to be on it is not relevant to how they'll calculate your entitlement or what they will expect of you.

UC is not really designed to be a short term gap fill. It takes time to get your first payment, though you can get an advance. If you can manage any other way, then I would try to manage that way.

If you can't manage any other way then you need to play ball and apply for jobs. When I was on UC in between jobs, my job coach was pretty light touch. She wasn't concerned that I'd have any difficulty finding a job and as long as I was logging a few applications every day, she left me alone. But if you find and are offered more hours, you will be expected to take it and your husband will have to take on the childcare.

You want the benefits you jump through the hoops.
They don't know dh is definitely getting a job. If you need more hours pick up some weekend work or evening work via agency.
When we were in this position (though dh didn't earn anywhere near 60k) We had to make ends meet. Dh started doing takeaway delivery as then he was free during the day for interviews and I went and did bar work on a weekend (having never worked bar in my life)

Friends and I took on evening work. ASDA deliveries, bar work, shelf stacking at times because of young children. Working nights won't interfere with @Abneyandteal19 job hunting in fact as an employer would have impressed me.

Abney is getting a hard time if her husband sees this as a sabbatical bar sending off résumés.

They only want you do more hours temporarily whilst your DP is looking for work. So if you can find something before he can you can do eg an evening job to make up hours.

@Abneyandteal19
If he had to look after our 4 year old while I did extra work at the moment he would miss out on job hunting time. Eg today a recruiter called him at 11 to set up a call with a company at 12:30- so if I was doing a 4hr retail shift he would have had to turn this down which seems madness!

Well I'm afraid that's life. Most people have to manage things in less-than-ideal or slightly inconvenient circumstances. Is he not capable of explaining to a recruiter that a 12.30 call will be difficult because of childcare? Or explaining to the hiring manager that he is caring for a toddler so apologies for any interruptions? And you are inventing scenarios that aren't even likely to be everyday occurrences. It might happen occasionally but it's not a strong enough reason to refuse to look for extra work.

I agree with almost everything you wrote, except from the bit about UC - my cousin has never worked a day in her life and has approximately the same discretionary spend as I do; because she has no childcare costs, no commuting costs, no housing costs and so on. That being said; I wouldn’t swap with her; because I am giving my children a far better start in life than she is; and her children will be left in the same situation as her after death where mine will at least have some sort of meagre inheritance.

Anyway; I was the main earner and my partner had to take redundancy due to serious health issues - again; we had both worked full-time since leaving education. We didn’t get a penny in UC because we earned too much; however if my salary was £200/month less (equating to less than one day per month) we would get the whole whack, plus childcare costs covered.
Again this was only a temporary safety net for us - we had already lived off of his redundancy package for years before attempting to claim. And the only reason he was too unwell for work for so long was because of a lack of services from the NHS.
After about 6 months he finally got well enough to work part time, and then full time again, and has worked ever since. Sometimes life throws you a curveball; that’s who UC should be for.

You’ve activated the Mumsnet far right conservative bots OP.

They like to make it as difficult as possible for you to claim benefits so that you won’t claim them. My friend has had two heart attacks and he’s being treated despicably. They probably hope he’ll die of stress so that they save money.

Just make an attempt to look for work. If you get a job then deal with it at that time. I bet all the people claiming that you’re committing fraud are still using tax-avoiding companies such as Amazon.

Why wouldn't the same rules apply to you as others claiming because you say your husband will get a job in a month? Until that point you will be treated the same as another couple working 15 hours between them?

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?

your not different from other people claiming, these are the rules - that you must seek further hours of work. You could get weekend job etc until your situation changes or evening job to increase your hours of work. DH will be home to do the childcare? Isn't he out of paid employment?

You’ve activated the Mumsnet far right conservative bots OP.

Im left of center, so how does that work if I think if you claim benefit you need to abide by the rules

This. Grabby greedy entitled people are ruining this country

I do think there should be some sort of recognition of previous tax paid or something; those who normally are net contributors should maybe get an “allowance” before making the part time worker seek more work (as long as the full-time worker is continuing to seek employment obviously)

Something more like contributions based ESA.

With that being said I think your husband should be looking for any job going to tide you over until he gets something more suitable; rather than only applying for £60k jobs.

Do you have savings or can you borrow money that can get you through? Going through the system makes you feel like a naughty child at all times. I would avoid it and concentrate are finding DP a job if at all possible.

This thread would have been better off under Cost of Living where answers would have been, in the main, from people who understand the system.

Why do they not have savings - they have 3 kids to support? Having children is a privilege - not a right. We only have the one DC and receive no child benefit due to high income. Due to our belief that families need robust savings (and not wanting to pay a 2nd mortgage in childcare fees) - we chose to do the sensible thing and cut out cloth to suit our finances.

If that sounds punishing to larger families, then so be it. Those who want large families should surely first check they can afford them? Otherwise it seems to be its a case of the state bankrolling poor decision making. The salaries that the OP has outlined do not sound to me like they adequately support a family of 5, which it seems they do not? Relying on a salaries of under 65k net to support 5 people? Thats 13k per annum per household member.

Haven't read full thread so apologies if it's already been posted but op, your dh may be able to claim this whilst he is looking for work: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance

Really? Not sure who “they” are in this case but we the taxpayer pay the social welfare bill.
How long would you as a taxpayer pay for the OP to work 15 hours while her DH looks for a job that meets his requirements? One month, 6 months, a year?

One of you needs to find some part time work. You could look for evenings if he cannot provide childcare in the day. My cousin went back to work with a very young baby when her husband was made redundant as she could find work quicker than he could. He cared for the infant while looking for work.