To apply for night jobs?

[TheLovelinessOfDemons]

DS 14 is in a children's home, but his social worker is starting the process of him coming home. I'm looking for a second job because my current one can't give me anywhere near enough hours. I'm on Universal Credit, but they expect me to earn upwards of £952 a month. Would it be unreasonable for me to go for night jobs even though when he comes home I'd have to switch to days? I'm widowed and DS has ADHD and a history of not going to school and going missing. How long does the parenting assessment process take?

TIA.

How would you switch to days? To be honest if he has a history of going missing you need to be home as much as possible. Is there an option of a wfh job?

Why are universal credit expecting you to earn that much?? Also if you work nights you will need to catch up on your sleep.
Can you say to UC you need to be the carer for your son and can't work because of it?

UC will expect the OP to earn that amount as its the standard single person AET (administrative earnings threshold)) if they don’t have carers activity or a disability recorded on their account. If the AET is not reached then they would be expected to attend weekly intensive work search meetings at the job centre, or be put on work prospect improvement courses, until they do reach that threshold.

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead thank you

Well, I'd still have the job I'm currently in but just don't have enough hours. He knows that if he goes missing again he'll go straight back into care. Tomorrow will be a test as we're meeting near the train station where he lives, and the last time we did that he said he was going to the toilet, jumped a train and came back here. I think he has better impulse control now, and obviously so do the practitioners and the social worker. I'll be applying for DLA for him when he comes back, so hopefully I'll get carer's allowance, and won't be pressured by Universal Credit to look for other jobs.

That's why I'll need to switch to days if he comes home. That's what you're expected to earn if you claim Universal Credit. It's 18 hours on NMW. The plan is to claim DLA for him and get carer's allowance, then I won't be required to work at all.

@TheLovelinessOfDemons good luck x

Thanks.

£952 ?? That’s low to me and That seems easily achieved of 18hrs x nmw

I have to earn £1446 as a single parent of an 8yr

Well yes, but I can't get it at my present job which is zero hours, they don't have the hours for me. I don't want to leave as my store is like a family, so I'm looking for both full and part time, preferably part time so I can keep the job I'm in.

That doesn't seem right
I've never earnt that much since being in universal credit and they've never said I had to earn more

It’s 28hrs I think

don’t they say if a child is at school you need to work 30hrs - 9-3 x 5 days or something like that

but that’s def my amount and if I don’t earn it they still use that figure as if I had

That's weird cos that's definitely not my experience
I don't earn that much and they've never queried it

In fact on mine it doesn't have that bit above that says 'your expected earnings is,'

Weird / I wish it was only £952 I had to earn. Tho that’s £11.5k a year and def wouldn’t pay my bills

I mean I don't earn as little as £952 but I don't earn as much as you either

Good luck

I don’t don’t have a choice and as I said even if I don’t earn that, it’s still calculated that’s what I have earnt and what thy take off my uc £420 a month regardless

yes I’m grateful I get some uc as being a single parent doing it all myself is financially hard but the months I don’t earn it , it would be nice to get some of the £420 back I lose

Did you just go onto universal credit? Or did you used to be on tax credits?

No never been on tax credits. Only been on uc a couple of years

Wonder if that's something to do with it? Don't know

I never realised it was like you said till now

I'm going to have to up my hours at some point...

Sorry @TheLovelinessOfDemonsfor hi jacking your thread

@Blondeshavemorefun although thinking about it every 3 months I get a bonus so actually I earn more than the amount you put in your post in that month. So that's probably why they're not bothered actually. Sorry was just looking at my last statement where I didn't get a bonus

Not thinking straight

Guess I will never know but to me it makes sense if babe child at school you need to work 30hrs

so not sure why @TheLovelinessOfDemons only had to work 18

Earning £952 net per month is only working around 18 hours a week - why can’t you do this?