would i benefit from a payrise??

[juicychops]

my work want to offer me a pay rise but im unsure if i would benefit from this or not. would i actually be better off or not?

i work part time while ds is at school. i get some housing benefit and tax credits.

after my benefits and tax credits have been affected, would i actually have a bit extra cash to myself?

This is a catch 22 situation I have been in myself, where it's not worth your while to accept the payrise, which is crazy.

Go and see the lone parent advisor at the job cente and ask them to crunch the numbers for you. It's about the only way to get a real result as the Government website is so vague on their figures and calculations.

I don't qualify for HB or CTB any more, and it is only just about worth accepting the payrise. This is only because my WTC & CTC calculation is based on the previous years figures, so I get an extra bit for a few months (til April), but it goes down the following year by quite a bit of the payrise, plus I actaully pay tax now (just), so I lose some of it to tax and NI too.

I always used to refuse my payrises for this reason. My firm did their best for me, for example finding me a place in the company car park which saves me £60 in parking fees every month, so this accounted in a legal way for the equivalent of the pay rises I had had to refuse.

When I discussed the payrise issue with a friend they did tell me that I should always accept the payrise, even if it made me no better off or even slightly worse off. Because the accumulated lack of increase in my salary adds up over time.
It makes me feel I'm not worth as much as other employees on some level, but it also leaves you caught in that position of always being on a low income. You won't ever get to a point where the payrise will make any real change in your income unless you start to increase your income.

Only you can decide if it's worth it. But you need the actual figures to know. So go see the lone parent advisor at the job centre. Phone up and ask for an appointment. If you do accept it you must inform the council re your HB and CT as soon as possible else you'll have a shock at the end of the year when they ask for the money back.

It is crazy. It's totally crazy how our benefits system keeps people trapped on them.

I hate tax credits! How bonkers is a system in which you are encouraged to REFUSE a payrise!?!?!?

We are in a similar situation in that my husband received a small pay rise before April, but then in April our tax credits decreased by the same amount. Daft lol

But I would always accept the pay rise if it means exchanging the "cash" for benefits. Especially with all the talks about cuts to benefits and tax credits. Its probably more secure to rely on the money from your employer than the benefits at the moment.

take the pay rise - benefits may be cut in the medium to long term under the new govt - but your payrise wont be!

You can check the figures on the tax credits website www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits.
I work part time and when I got offered some overtime it worked out that if I earned an extra £300 in the year I would lose about £200 in tax credits so I would only end up £100 better off.
However, your tax credits are calculated on last year's earning so u wont lose any tax credits until next year.
If you don't have to do any extra work for the money then just take it, you wont be any worse off but u prob wont benefit from the rise as much as your colleagues x

xxHunnyxx yes she will probably keep some of the payrise via WTC & CTC but she is likely to loose that amount in reduced HB and CTB.
Overall effect is likely to be negligable and posibly leave her worse off. Especially if she then gets to the point of earning enough to pay tax and NI.
The taxceredit site does not help you know overall what the effects to everything will be, specifically HB & CTB.
Only person who can crunch the actual numbers and give you the real figures I have come across is lone parent advisor at the job centre.