Universal Credit

[Castlecould]

Hi everyone

I am a single mum of 2 children 17 and 11. I’m currently a full time student, and also claiming tax credits alongside my student finance.

I have an option to do another year of studying or start employment. I currently recieve £117 tax credit per week which will drop to £66 once my eldest leaves school in the summer I’ve just used one of the online calculators to see what the difference in moving to UC would be and it seems I would only be eligible for £6 per week if working full time! I’ll be losing cb and maintenance payments for my eldest also so a huge drop.

Would me working full time be the trigger for the move to UC? Would I be any better off working part time hours? Or will I be better off doing another years study and hopefully staying on tax credits? I’m very confused by it all..any ideas?

working full time wouldn't trigger you switching to Uc but obviously would make your tax credits drop as you'd be earning more and if you then only have one child on your claim the threshold drops significantly as well.
If you went onto Uc and continued studying you are highly likely to be a lot worse off as student maintainence loan is counted as income and deducted pound for pound from your Uc amount, so you are better off staying on tax credits.