will I get less money dropping hours?

[fs2013]

Hi I work 23.5 hours a week and as a lone parent I get tax credits and housing benefit. I want to decrease my hours to 16 as I am currently studying and I am not able to fit everything in. (I work in an after school and breakfast club). My boss is happy for me to do this but when I check benefit advice it seems I would not get any more benefit as a result. Does anyone know about this? Is 16 hours the same as say 29 hours benefit wise? I know it changes if you go below 16 or over 30, is that it? Thanks so much if you can help

You would get extra, but it won't be as much as the extra wages you have been earning.

OOh thanks for replying! I really don't know what to do at the moment..need the money but also want a career one day & I'm studying for the future. So hard to make the right decision! If it's even a bit more it might help, but a big drop will be hard x

It's roughly 50p extra tax credits for each £1 lost through salary that you will get, so if you lose £100 you'll get £50 extra tax credits :)

Are you sure? That seems too good to be true!

It's not exact but it'll be somewhere there roughly. Have you put your (new) details into the turn 2 us calculator? Just input it all as though you're already doing the reduced hours and see what it comes out with for you :)

Be aware that there is a disregard of £2500 for a drop in income. So the first £2500 loss will be ignored.

Ah, apologies I wasn't aware of that - my experience is from going the other way when DH got a pay increase and our tax credits dropped.

Thanks lougle x

The £2500 isn't actually ignored it just isn't taken into account until the following tax year.