working tax credits from April 2012 - single parents

[meandmypickle]

Are the min hours staying at 16 for single parents from April 2012, or increasing to 24 hrs/

um, not sure. I thought it was next year they were changing.

fucking tories

24 hours is just for couples.

The rules are staying the same for lone parents. It's couples that have to work 24 hours between them from April. link here

Thanks :) Also what are the rules re self emplyment. I've read youhave to be making the minimum wage in profits to claim. I dont yet as business not been running long - could i still claim?

As I understand it, it's not mandatory but an assumption. The assumption will that, unless you declare otherwise, you are making minimum wage as a self-employed person. HMRC lists full information here

It's changing to 24 hours per week at NMW for LP's when Universal Credit starts being introduced from 2013. It stays the same for LP's until then.

Kitty - sorry not sure what you mean by changing to 24 hrs for NMW? Please would you let me know. Thanks

There's a lot of misinformation going around about the Universal Credit, mostly distributed by people with their own agenda. If you read through this document from the DWP, for example, it states the following.

Establishing a single withdrawal rate, and eliminating the hours rules currently present in Working Tax Credit, has the potential to create a much more flexible labour market.

and

For example, it will now be financially rewarding for a lone parent to work 15 hours per week, or 17 hours per week (both of which would not have been financially rewarded under the existing system which only recognised 16 hours per week); and should more hours be available, the extra earnings will no longer face a Marginal Deduction Rate of 96 per cent. Under the current system a lone parent working 16 hours at the National Minimum Wage would only increase their take home pay by £5 a week if they increased their hours to 25 hours. Under Universal Credit the same lone parent would increase their take home pay by £17.

I thought I had read that the 24 hours for LP when UC comes in is for when the youngest child reaches the age of 5, before then the 24 hour min does not apply

From the DWP paper here

b. as announced in the Budget, lone parents whose youngest child has reached the age of five will need to actively seek work unless they are disabled or have a health condition which prevents them working, or are a carer; and
c. couples with children whose youngest child has reached the age of five, and where neither partner is disabled or has a health condition which prevents them working or is a carer, will need to make a joint claim to Jobseeker?s Allowance, requiring both partners to actively seek work.

Take that in conjunction with the extract printed above it will now be financially rewarding for a lone parent to work 15 hours per week, or 17 hours per week (both of which would not have been financially rewarded under the existing system which only recognised 16 hours per week) and, no, the lone parent of the child over 5 does not have to find 24 hours of work in a week to qualify. Like I say, there's a lot of misinformation being put around.