I'm being made redundant... but not sure what happens with CTC/WTC if temping...

[Silveryfox]

Hi - I've posted this in the Redundancy topic but not much activity there.... so thought I'd try here:

I'm being made redundant, and will temp while looking for a full time job. I'll be getting a large redundancy payout as I've been with my company for a long time (over 10 years) and I'm not sure how this will affect my working tax credit/child tax credit. I receive no other benefits. Obviously with temping its not secure, and its not reliable, so there will be periods when I'm not working in between. I have a 2 year old son who goes to nursery full time and I don't want to pull him out as I have no support (split with my husband in Feb) and obviously child care places have waiting lists, so I won't just be able to re-place him with no notice. I'm aware I can get JSA but worried about the whole benefits thing really (never been on benefits before DS came along) and wanted any advice before calling Tax Credits people. Any advice?

Checked some of this out myself recently as have been at risk of redundancy for a while now (but still in work at present). Benefit system isn't set up for moving between work and not work. You're much better off if you can be mostly working and claiming tax credits (possibly using your redundancy pay out and/or housing benefit to cussion the bits when work is scarce) or alternatively not working at all, DS no longer in nursary and on JSA or IS (you can claim either with a 2 year old). Your redundancy pay out will not affect your benefits, unless it takes you over the savings limit for IS. If it does, you can get JSA (contribution based) instead for a period of time (used to be 6 months, but may have changed). I'm fairly sure the redundancy pay does not affect your tax credits. When does your DS turn 3? You can get 15 hours free childcare from the term after he does, which you could use whether or not you're working, and would ensure you kept his nursary place open on a part time basis if you are out of work.

You can always phone up the tax credits and imply that you are a potential new claimant/enquiring on behalf of a friend (whose NI number you don't know) to get some general information rather than risk them thinking you've told them things that weren't actually definite. Or CAB can help.

Thats great thanks Purple :) So many people have suggested I give up work - the truth is that I was on maternity leave for 52 weeks, and had no choice to go back to work, although I didn't want to as I wanted to be a full time SAHM. So, he went to nursery full time from age 1. He's now a strapping 2 1/2 year old and he's been used to having the run of the nursery, loads of friends to play with, structured play, thousands of toys, etc. and I just don't think I would know where to start if I kept him home full time! Thats terrible isn't it! The other thing is, I've always worked - right from age 18 when I finished college. I'm now 39! Never been out of work. Never been on benefits. Slight niggling worry also that if I give up work, when it comes to him being old enough for me to start back working again I would have lost any confidence in myself and my ability to do a good job. Or am I worrying unnecessarily? I don't know!

But, I will try your suggestion of calling the tax credit line and enquiring on behalf of a friend... although have you ever tried getting through on that line??? Its like getting blood out of a stone trying to get through LOL!

Thanks again thats really helpful.

Yes, I have many times! And when you do get though the person may or may not be any bloody use at all . But CAB are hard to get hold of too. Not sure about losing confidence if you have time out, but you are right to be worried about pulling DS out of nursary and finding it hard to get him back in again. Had real difficulties getting a nursary place for my DS at short notice once (when his dad finally got himself a job).

If you've worked for the past 18 years, I reckon you'll find something reasonably soon :)

Hi - well an update.... I rang the tax credits helpline today and they basically said that on the weeks I don't end up working for more than 16 hours they will not contribute to my son's childcare. That I will need to ring DWP and see if they can help. Looks like it will all be retrospective too - i.e. I pay the childcare costs then they will reimburse me what they feel I'm entitled to based on the hours I work. They also said, when I mentioned the thing about not being able to just pull him out of childcare and be able to put him back in at a moment's notice that I would need to find childcare where they don't have a waiting list! Is there such a thing?? Jesus. How can anyone live like that???! Its all so confusing. I'm starting to think it would be easier to stop working completely, although I wouldn't be happy about the drop in my financial circumstances. I work so I can have a nice home, and be able to provide for my boy...... but I guess I'll have to see what DWP say when I ring them tomorrow. I rang them briefly tonight but only managed to get through to them 10 mins before they shut for the day so they weren't really able to help much.

Is there a benefits bit to post on here somewhere? It seems like I get different advice every time I speak to a different agency, as they;re all separate and don't seem to know anything about anything other than their own "area" if you know what I mean? So fed up!!!!!

Sounds like you had a most unhelpful person on the phone. The official rule is that the childcare is for whilst you are working, however they don't ask you which hours you work, nor which hours you have childcare for, so they won't know whether they really match. As long as the total cost for childcare looks reasonable compared to what you're earning, I'd have thought you'd be fine. (They could in theory contact your employer and the nursery to check, but really would doubt they'd do that unless your earnings looked much too low for the cost of the childcare)

But, you will have to earn enough to survive off tax credits alone to do this. If you need to claim IS or JSA, then the childcare payments will stop. I think they're being useless telling to ask the DWP. DWP will not pay your childcare.

There is a work secion on MN - you could try there.

Just a thought - If you are temping, can you declare yourself self-employed? I am self-employed and work for various companies as a consultant. I get my WTC (not entitled to CTC as I don't work enough hours on average) based on the average hours I worked per week and the amount of profit I made for the year. I gave an estimated profit for the first year (I put it high so that I wouldn't have to reimburse the tax credit people). Then I gave them my actual profits once I'd submitted my accounts for the year and paid my tax bill. If you are temping via an agency they are usually okay with you explaining that you are self-employed. You need to pay your own self-employed NI contributions, do your accounts (just an excel spreadsheet of incomings and outgoings with receipts attached), and do your tax once a year (you can do it online). You might work out better off too, as you can claim some of the expenses of working (eg travel to the offices you temp at, mobile phone if you use it for work) against tax.