Tax credits advice please

[MummyPig24]

If I work less than 16 hours a week will it affect mine and dhs joint claim? At the moment I don't work and we receive a small amount of tax credits and housing benefit. It really helps as dh doesn't earn much. I need to boost our income a bit as things are very tight but before I spend an hour on hold to tax credits to find out, I wondered if anyone on here knew?!

Your total household income will affect your claim, your wages could push you over the threshold for tax credits. Also if you want to claim the childcare element of tax credits, you would need to work 16 hours or over.

For every £1 you earn, you will lose 41p in tax credits.

Bastard. I guess I have to work out if I will be better off working or not. But I am bored and poor!

You'll always be better off working than not, but it may be that you aren't very much better off if you currently receive housing benefit and tax credits, because you'll lose 41p in tax credits for every £1 (before deductions) you earn, and then of the remainder (59p), you'll lose 65% from housing benefit, so you'll lose 38p if you don't earn enough for tax/NI deductions. That takes your deductions up to 79p in the £.

So, if you earn £10, you'll get to keep £2.10.