Depending on your income you still get some help. I get a 'NHS Tax Credit Exemption' card. You have to ask for it when you start working and then they work out if you're entitled based on your income and then will renew it annually depening on your WTC & CTC claim form. So once sorted you don't have to keep applying. There are other things you may be entitled too as well, but you have to ask. I can't remember off the top of my head apart from free school dinners, but i wasn't entitled to any of the others as i earnt too much.
I work part time but above minimum wage and earn enough to pay full council tax. So pretty good money but still a pretty low income over the year.
I basically get all prescriptions free of charge with my NHS card, plus a free eye test and i think it's £30 towards the cost of new glasses and/or lens. You just have to show the card to the opticians and they note the number down and fill in the forms and you sign. All dentist is free still if you can get an NHS one. I couldn't and so have had to take my son to a private one in the mean time. I only go for myself if it's an emergency! But i guess a lot of people are in that position.
Remember one of the pluses of working and getting WTC & CTC is that if your ex pays any mainetance you get to keep the lot rather than just the first £10. Course if they don't pay much/any it's not any help plus council tax & housing benefit take it into account as income along with WTC & CTC. But then they reduce your income according to how much of it you spend on child care...
It's a very strangly balanced seesaw as to whether you are better off or not overall. And the figures are so hard to actually get to the bottom of.
I asked at my lone parent group yesterday how many members actually work. Of approx 45 parents only 6 of us work! (3 of who are dad's and 2 of those dad's don't have residency of their children so aren't doing the school run every day. Of the other 3, 1 has much older children (16 and 18) and the other two have only the one child). I fall into the 1 child catagory.
I was surprised, but it seems to reflect the general feeling that most lone parents (especially those with residency) are in fact worse off by working than they are working, or it's simply too hard to find lone family friendly jobs which are flexible as to hours perhaps. The big killer is housing benefit loss i find. I wasn't entitled to any even on Income Support so it wasn't a factor for me. Hence why i am better of working.
Gilly