I've increased my hours but dh loses JSA etc?!

[SolidGold]

So p*ed off today.

I've been working 4 hours per week up to now, finally got my hours increased to 3.5 days. Dh has been out of work for 6 months and as we had no insurance (self employed) or savings he has been claiming JSA and council tax benefit and mortgage help.

He rang up to let them know my hours have iincreased and they told him he can no longer claim anything!

So we will be a few hundred pounds worse off because I'm working more!

He says he's looking for work as best he can. I really hope so. He has applied for a job that would be ideal, but we have yet to hear whether he'll get an interview. I daren't even hope, as so far he's only had two interviews and then didn't get the jobs.

I don't know how we'll manage if he is out of work longer

I don't know if this will help if the problem is that DH is just inherently lazy but when my DH was out of work (for 4 months) he really was a fish out of water. He knew that there was work to be done at home but he didn't know what or how.

Once I realised that we made him a simple weekly plan and he took over full responsibility for certain chores. e.g dust and hoover on Mondays, bathroom on Tuesdays. In the end he became quite proud of keeping "his" ironing up straight It was almost a shame when he found work...

PS is wasn't that he did nothing when he was working but he was used to me saying, "the washing needs bringing in" or "would you run the hoover round" . He'd never had to "manage" it control freak me?

Not a cad idea, Chance. I was crediting dh with the ability to think independently, but obviously asking too much!

You need to do a proper check on your benefits situation..look up a website called Entitled To..it's easy and accurate. Go with DH to his next appointment at Job centre...so you can hear the advice they are giving him.Sit down with him one night and look at how many jobs he's applied for where etc. I know you are angry with him and quite rightly so, but whilst you are together it is a joint problem.Let him know he can't fob you off ..you are jointly responsible for finances regardless of who cooks the effing chilli !!

• bad idea

Sorry solidgold, I wasn't meaning you didn't want to work , but that you seemed to be like me in that we're only doing it because we want to work when we know we'd be financially better off not bothering and that's incredibly frustrating

If you're getting £850/month after tax does that mean about £950/month before tax? With no other income I make it you'd get about £75/week in WTC alone. www.turn2us.org.uk.

I think we will have to call the WTC people as I don't know. I will have just short of £200 per week before tax is taken off.

Cogito, I don't know. I filled in the benefits calculator you linked to honestly and it told me £30 council tax help and £20 child tax credit???

Just tried to fill in the hmrc benefits calculator but it wants earnings from 2012!! How can that be relevant now??!!

I give up. I have told dh to ring them.

Tax credits are always calculated on the previous tax year's circumstances unless those have changed significantly. Yours have changed so you use your new circumstances when you make the claim. £800/month gross income, 26 hours, one (?) child with no childcare costs, no other revenue streams, partner claiming income support, no disabilities (?) mortgage .... You definitely qualify for WTC and a call should sort it out. Good luck

Thanks.

(This is SolidGold, name changed):

Just a quick update:

Despite having a monthly income of just over £800 maybe, we are to receive no working tax credits, because dh earned too much before losing his job last June. We have lost most benefits except from April we should receive £24 child tax credit a week.

I don't understand how we are expected to live on that with no housing benefit or anything. We are having to sell our house and hope we can pay rent up front from the little we will have.

Dh still hasn't found a job but has applied for several nearly every day.

I am furious - we have paid national insurance contributions all our working lives and, after claiming JSA for 6 months, because I found work we are entitled to nothing??? What a way to encourage people to work!

But you are better off both in work.

Yes, but for that dh needs to find work! He's not sitting around on his backside doing nothing, but is constantly applying for jobs.

If your DH lost his job in June, that should mean that your tax credits will go up quite a lot when it's renewal time, as it will be based on earnings from April 2013-2014. Normall renewal time is May/June, which I know is a while away, but at least there's an end in sight.