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?

Everyone working and paying tax, even if just a little, is facilitating benefits. And pensions. And everything else paid for out if the public purse. Not just the high powered and high earners.

Indeed. Mention Universal Credit and people froth at the mouth.

For those people saying Dh can look after the children while OP works more hours, I don’t think that is possible. From what I have read, isn’t it the case that you have to commit to job hunting for 35 hours a week otherwise he risks losing his benefit?

This!!

No-one has an issue with UC, it’s stupid to say they do.
The issue is that the OP doesn’t want to follow the same rules as the rest of us do.

Surely everyone working part time with an unemployed spouse could say oh don't worry just pay us the money, I'm sure he'll get a job in a few months.

How do they know that? How do YOU know that? They can't just make a new rule for you because your husband used to earn 70k.

Of course it is possible to look for work for 35 hours per week while also looking after children. I work more hours than that and I still “look after my children” while my partner works.

OPs kids are all of age to be in childcare for 30h per week. Her husband can jobseek then; plus 1hr per evening monday-Friday.

There's no rule that those 35 hours have to be during the couple of supermarket shifts OP takes on to get over the minimum hours threshold. He can easily spend 35 hours a week jobhunting And 6 hours a week looking after his kids while his wife is at work. There are 168 hours in a week and he only needs to spend 56 of those asleep so with 35 hours spent jobhunting that's 77 hours left over for other activities.

If OP only works 15 hours a week she isn't entitled to the 30 hours.

I agree, just commit and have a mooch, by the time anything was found, interviewed for and started your DH will hopefully have a new job.

This is actually quite cool - no savings restrictions too. The summer break between the contracts just got ~£1K cheaper!

You are in Scotland.

Exactly! Well said @Kalevala.

If one parent works part time (15 hours) and other doesn't work at all (0 hours)- why would you need 30 hours of childcare? There are plenty of people who look after their kids whilst applying for jobs, that's the level of multi tasking expected from modern parents. Surely if the recruiters are breaking down OP's husbands door, he should very easily be able to schedule interviews when the OP isn't working? That's minimum of 15 hours of childfree job hunting per week?

Lucky you. Sorry presumed she was in England.

It really isn't easy. I'm lucky, I work in contracts. But trying to get a permanent job and it's hard at the moment. An employers market definitely. Plus, if you'd like hybrid working, more or less forget it.

@MaidOfSteel

Not quite. 54% of the adult population are net tax recipients. They take out more in services vs what they pay in tax.

The cutoff for "net taxpayer" is about £55k/year in the aggregate sense. The higher earners (top 10%) pay 60% of the income taxes so the rest do little. They just end up using services.

For the OP, her SO was not a contractor. He had a fixed term contract (these are usually 12 months). I have seen these type of contracts pop up more and more in the UK as it allows companies to let you go if the financial need arises.

So in the OPs case, her SO simply finished his fixed term contract. He was not fired or made redundant which means he would not be eligible for unemployment benefits (in the general sense).

In this case, this type of problem (time between jobs) is what savings are for. OP needs to increase her hours while her SO looks for work.

And no, the husband should not try to take on lower skilled work. That is actually detrimental in the long-run. But he should temper his expectations for higher paid professional jobs as those are harder to come by now. A lower paying professional job would probably work better right now to tide them over.

I’m not sure if she is or not; but everyone in Scotland gets the 30 hours once their kid turns 3. They don’t do 15h here at all. However the 30h isn’t being rolled out to 2 year olds here; which would help me far more!

In my experience if you already have a job they pretty much leave you alone. My friend is single no kids and works 17 hours and they top her up they have never been on her case to look for more hours. No disability or anything she says they just leave her alone so she will carry on! Not saying I agree with this btw but you should be fine for a little while

well that’s the condition of UC so I guess you manage without or commit to looking. Not sure how long they give before they are on your back

Can't he just do agency work until something better comes up?

I wonder whether the advice in the first few posts would have been the same for someone without kids!

Absolutely this.
Op can moan about the whole situation as much as she likes and keep making out her DH is some Billy big balls CEO who can't possibly apply for jobs and do CC, but the reality is he is currently unemployed, they have a small amount of savings and she will either need to increase her hours to get UC or he will need to get a temp job.
"Its not fair" doesn't pay the bills and those projecting their own issues aren't helping the Op at all.

Why exactly would it be "detrimental" to take on lower skilled work?

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

makes a change from being called the Marxist (which is way closer to where i sit politically)

The point is: between 2 adults 1 is currently (regardless of circs up to now) working 15 hours per week.
The requirement to look for more hours isn't entirely draconian at this point, if OP wants a bit of UC to tide them over.
Even if OP picks up 25 more hours, there is still one parent working 0 hours, so the pearl-clutching about how the poor little kiddywinkies will never see their mum is baffling.

OP, it is shit. It stings and everything sucks. but all you have to do is agree, and apply for some jobs. In the meantime you and your DH reassess how your household works, and he picks up the lion's share of the housework/cooking/DC stuff.