Have been offered a fab job, think I am going to be financially worse off,any tips?

[arwen]

I have been offered a job starting in Sept when my youngest starts school. I will be working school hours, no hols and training around school It will pay approx £500 a month but I will have to pay tax and NI out of that. I think my pay will also be subdivided so there is a litle bit of income in the hols.

I appreciate I will have no need of income support but as I will also loose my mortagage support I will be approx £500 worse of each month. Apparently I won't even qualify for working tax credit as I am working less than 16 hours. I don't want to claim benefits and really want to take this job as it could lead to so much more but am really worried about how I am going to manage. Any ideas, or tips?

I would tell your potential employee about te 16 hours ting and ask for a few more hours tbh

the 16 hour thing

I am going to be teaching adult literacy so they are offering me 3 courses a week. to work 16 hours I would need to be teaching 8 courses and they don't give that many to new tutors plus until Jan dd isn't full time.So not that easy but still really want the chance to get a foot in the door.

Can you work for yourself, ironing or something to bump up the hours?

I go to adult literacy/maths classes they are fab Our tutors are lovely.

I already do ironing and ad hoc childcare, hope I can be a lovely tutor as well :-)

So can you iron s l o w l y and up your hours to 16?

Think I would be earning about 50p an hour and they might be suspicious :-)

No if you are S/E time spent advertising/doing accounts etc count for WTC

So you will be doing what 6 hrs a week?

Plus prep maybe another 3 makes total of 9

Can you get maybe 6 hrs of something else?

Thanks katymac, so do you know if I can add 2/3 jobs together as I could prob conjure up 4 hours ironing and 2 hours childcare

When I worked at playgroup i worked 16 hours and was getting less than £500 a month. I worried that my average number of hours per week didn't work out as 16 when you take into account the holidays. However I was told that I should calculate the number of hours I work per week on the weeks I was working and I could claim on that basis.

Speak to your employer. Explain about the 16 hours. I'm sure they can find other work for you to do which will increase your hours(preparation, photocopying, marking homework etc) and spread your hourly rate across the 16 hours.

If you do 16 hours you will get WTC and CTC which will make up the shortfall. Also you will probably still be entitled to some Council Tax benefit.

You also get paid your income support for a few weeks when you first go back to work if you have been a stay at home mum for a while. Go and see your lone parent advisor at the job centre too. They will be able to tell you exactly what you will be entitled too and crunch all the numbers for you.

Hope you can work things out with your employer.
Gilly

Thanks gillybean2, I think part of the problem is that because dd is only part-time until Jan I can't fit 16 hours in at school. I can ask them but I will be on a contract for 6 hours at a fixed rate and I can't see they will extend that to 16 or change the rate to cover 16 hours.
no harm in asking though!

I assume you are paid hourly and have to claim? If so your hourly rate should include preparation and marking so your total hours will include prep + marking as well as conact - typically you should do at least 1 hour P + M to every contact hour, possibly more.

If you are paid as an employee you will be on a fixed percentage of a full time contract - so you know what it is?

Once you have got your foot in this door it will open other ones and you will be up to 16 hours in no time I bet

Absolutely - adding jobs together

Remember it is only for your S/E stuff that you can be paid below the minimum wage

So your 2 hrs which you spread to 3 must earn you £16.56 an hour (before tax) - it might be worth speaking to the employer about it

Check your contract - although you have 6 hours teaching your contract should say you are expected to do P + M as well - your HR offfice may be able to confirm that your actual workload would be around 16 horus pw.

Right, am trying to get my head round this. so Titchy are you saying that for each 2 hour course I can count as having worked 4 hours. Katymac I don't really get the £16.56 an hour bit. I am going to be paid £21 an hour before Tax and NI so do I need to divide that by 4 to get an hourly rate?

No

£21 an hour would allow for a total of 3.8 hours to be worked at minimum wage

So you couldn't say Well I get 4 hours pay for 1 hour worked as it would have to be at least £22.08

So if you are doing 4 hours at £21 an hour - that could equate to 2hrs prep plus 1 hr contact time - so 12 hrs worked in all

arwen you can take another part time job to bump up your hours to 16, maybe 1 day a week in a shop or supermarket would be ideal.

Yes you can add on prep and marking to your class contact time. Though as KatyMac says if you added on one hour p+m to each teachiing hour that would bring you under minimum wage. But adding 1 hour for every two hours class contact would be reasonable, and I would expect your college's HR office would be happy to give you a letter saying your contact hours are 8 per week, and that you would be expected to do another 4 hours per week prep and marking. At least I was always happy to do this anyway . So only another 4 horus to find!