Nil hours contract and benefits?

[WishYouWereMine]

Hi there,
I'm working my backside off at the moment as a Christmas temp for a large retail chain. The team manager has said they'd like to keep me on but there are no regular hours at the moment so would I sign a nil hours contract to cover sickness etc.
I'd love to stay there and the extra money would be fantastic but.. Would I be able to claim income support for the weeks that I wasn't working or would I have to go without? I'm a lone parent.
I've googled and found nothing about it so hoping someone might be able to help!
Thank you in advance x

Depends how much you will earn, and how often. You will keep the first £20 each week that you earn, however anything over that you will lose the equivalent amount in benefits eg if you earn £50 one week you will lose £30 of your benefits. Its worth doing if there will likely be a job for you in the foreseeable future but if you think you will just be kept on the casual work for quite a while you need to weigh up the pros and cons.

Also you will need to stick to less than 16 hours per week work with them otherwise you can no longer claim income support. Not an issue if you can do that regularly, but if its just the odd week here and there then it's going to make your life difficult!

What about your other benefits though? Housing/council tax are particularly tough to work around. And tax credits?

Make an appointment with your lone parent advisor?

I don't claim housing benefit or council tax benefit at the moment.
I went for the contract anyway for 3 months, so will see how it goes. Manager thinks it likely there will be a job coming up soon.
I'm claiming working tax credits at the moment as am working properly but after Christmas will have to switch I assume.