To think UC's new AET is fucking ridiculous?

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I’ve been working & claiming UC for the past 2 years. Today I got an email saying I need to attend a mandatory appointment to review my commitments, the reason for this being the AET is now £892 & I only earn £881.58.
I now have to attend regular work meetings because of this £10.42 shortfall! & if I fail to attend any of these I will be sanctioned.
The ironic thing is, I have to take time out of my working day to attend an appointment with UC about helping me find more work?
I’m on a fixed term time only contract at 20 hours a week & im paid pro rata.

What the actual fuck?

@SparklyLeprechaun not all schools provide an after school club. It's not compulsory! Don't assume, my DC school doesn't have such facilities!

God bless your optimism!!

I wish I only had to work 20 hours per week… seems fair to expect a bit more of people tbh 😞

Most parents have to make it fit in.

@Runnerinthenight by parents I'm assuming you mean a 2 parent household. In reality 1 parent can't manage to do what 2 parents can do. It's totally unrealistic. I know some don't want to accept this but quite often things aren't as simple as they seem unfortunately!

These rules make things ridiculous for employers as well. If we advertise a job, we end up with piles if applicants whose GPs have certified them as too unwell to work, yet UC credit deems then fit to work. And this is on top of the people who are forced to apply for totally unsuitable jobs in order to fulfil their quota of job searches.
If the government wants to create jobs and grow the economy, surely burying employers up to their eyeballs in spam isn"t the way to do it.

That is really bad but if you were are a carer then your dh being self employed would have had no impact on you.

We asked them this and they said it still
wouldn’t count as he was self employed ? That he would himself have to find actual employment instead of being self employed ?

Work coaches constantly give out incorrect information. If your dh earned enough employed to cover the couples AET then you would have no work commitments. If you are a carer you also have no work commitments so your dh earnings employed or self employed have no bearing on you. He simply needed to earn the single AET employed or be gainfully employed. He is in essence treated as a single claimant as far as earnings are concerned if you are a carer. Why did he just stop being self employed?

We're the opposite. Every single person I ever knew on TV had to repay an alleged overpayment. No issues on UC.

How?

Thank you. I worked full time as a single parent also and OT when I could to keep the boat afloat. I'm unsure how the benefits system works but I do know of people who claim UC and won't work anymore than 16 hours as it impacts on their benefits. Seems like a disincentive to get off benefits. I appreciate all people's circumstances are different

We Ended up with a 4k overpayment. Was getting £20 a week make it make sense 😂 All payee too.

I also had massive over payment from tax credits.
No problems with universal credit I’m better off with it as housing is included instead of having to claim housing separately and having to send endless reams of paperwork to prove my eligibility monthly to the point I stopped bothering.
UC pays more towards childcare too.
20 hours a week is not much especially term time only.
Ive always worked more than that as a single parent.

Self employed earnings don't count towards the AET so this wouldn't work anyway

I think UC is a better system in terms of avoiding over payments. You have to pay your childcare upfront and this ends up costing hundreds! That isn't going to get people to work more... so that part needs looking at.

What's this got to do with job vs career?

The logic is quite simple: people should do their best to minimise their reliance on state benefits, not actively choose to do the bare minimum.

Oh But that's sooo mean.... remember they care about their children and couldn't possibly go to work and use childcare like others have to...

Problem is surely not every one can have a well paying career. We actually need people in lower paid jobs as well as the higher jobs.

We need bin men as much as we need teachers and doctors and check out staff. The lorry driver who delivers your food to Tesco and the warehouse staff who loaded that lorry.

Sometimes those jobs are zero hours or temp only in say warehousing.

quoted the wrong person haha.

Same here. I can put my youngest in nursery but would still have to collect my oldest who is six at 3.15. Hence the difficulty in being able to work lots.

A one off appointment to review your situation really isn’t much to expect when you are getting free money every month.

Not free money. People on UC will pay tax with their wages.

Can guarantee that the OP isn't paying tax on her wages as they are well under personal allowance. Just like anyone who is doing the minimum 18 hours at minimum wage will be under personal allowance so not paying tax so that argument goes nowhere.

One of reform's policies was to increase the personal allowance to £20k wasn't it?

Is that 35 hours at minimum wage?

16 hours is not a thing any more under UC. That was tax credits. There is no set amount of hours to work with UC, you just need to earn a certain amount.