Home ed and job seekers?!

[DarwinChrist]

My DS is turning 5 soon and I'm home educating. I've received a letter from the job centre saying I need to go in for an interview so I'm assuming I'm going to have to go on job seekers?

I'm a single mum and decided to give up work to teach my son at home (at the time I was with his father who made a healthy wage so I was able to)

After we split I've been on benefits which fortunately covers my expenses (I didn't really have a choice, I did look for work but the amount I'd make was only going to cover childcare costs, I didn't think it was worth it - plus I felt really strongly about home ed and have paid my fair share of tax over the years!)

I'm rambling, anyway I'm now worried that I'm going to be forced to work and send my son to school as I belive the UK law states I have to work the same amount of hours that he attends school (30 hours) and there isn't any support from local authorities for home ed.

What can I do??

I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but I can tell you this:

Home educating doesn't put you on any different footing from anyone else - you will still have to look for work, which may mean using childcare if you can't find a job you can do with your child in tow. You might ask around locally in the HE community to see whether there are any CMs who HE. That way your son could have big kids to play with and maybe still go along to home ed groups. That worked really well for my daughter.

You cannot be forced to use school as childcare. The government policy is that school is only for education (though everybody knows that many parents do rely on school for childcare).

Apparently some staff may not be aware that school is not childcare, so you might have to be firm about this and prepared to go over their heads if necessary.

So you could go in to the interview saying, "Of course I have the right to home educate my child, that isn't in question. Obviously I understand that I do need to seek work. I plan to look for the following types of jobs which can be done from home while I look after him, or I will explore the available local childcare options such as childminders" etc.

Sorry, OP, didn't meant to thread-hunt, but just happened to read another thread of yours, posted a day or two after this one, and there you claim you are in a relationship and want your dp to propose. Is this a scenario you are trying out in your mind or is it actual facts? It would be almost easier to answer if you were a little clearer.

In any case, I think some of the advice on that thread would do for this one too: you need to think seriously about how you are going to stay financially safe not just for the next few years but longterm.

If you stay at home on benefits and HE, you may risk losing your benefits unless it looks as if you are trying to support yourself. Saracen's ideas of either working at home or childcare/HE groups seem good.

Also remember that your ds will be almost an adult before he can be relied on to sort his own education out without any facilitating on your behalf, so unless you come up with a good solution, that is a good many years you will be out of the workforce. Think about what that might do to your employability. Also think about your pension. It won't be very nice for your ds if he has to support you in old age because you have not made provision.

Basically, make sure your plans are carefully made and appropriate both for short-term and long-term.

Well she's been with her partner for 6 yrs and only mentions having a 3 yo.

cory oh yeah I'd forgotten about this, I did post this thread as a 'what if' question. I've been trying to figure out every scenario possible and work out what would be best. Will post in my other thread and update. Spoiler alert - it did not go well.
Actually good thing that I posted this thread already because I'll provably need it now more than ever.

I worked from home content writing for a company. It's not amazing money but it would mean you could home school and be self employed.