Universal credit and working part time

[Happyface12]

So up untill now I just pick up about 1000 a month in universal credit and child benefits, it’s started a job part time where I’ll pick up around 940 a month , I’ve gone onto the benefits calculators and there saying I’ll still pick up around 900 a month in UC surely this can’t be right ? As it’s not much less than I’m picking up now when not working . I’m a single mom have 1 child and have a flat where the uc pay the rent for me atm . Is anyone else in a similar situation to me and do they know If this is right or am I doing something wrong ?

also my lo will be going to nursery £79 a week roughly I’ve applied for the uc claim up to 85 % back does anyone have a rough idea of how much I’ll actually be able to claim back?

For each additional pound you earn, your Uc will reduce by 55p. If you need more childcare then childcare element is paid at 85%

Because UC deductions are done on a percentage, you’ll never be worse off for working more. It’s 55p less per pound. So if you earned £1 more per hour from your job, with UC deductions taken into account you’d still be 45p per hour better off.

Yes sounds right with childcare. It's part of the whole "making work pay" thing.

That makes sense! Thank you.

Universal Credit starts by working out what, under its rules, you need to live on. So if you've got a child and pay rent you'll get a Standard Allowance, Child Responsibility Element and a Housing Cost Element. The latter may, or may not cover all your rent subject to the operation of bedroom tax (in social housing) ot the LHA cap if you're in private. The sum of those is called your Max UC. A single Mum with 5 yo and allowable rent of £500/month will have a max UC of £1198.30.

If you have earnings then you get a work allowance (earnings you can keep before UC is affected). If you rent and are paid Housing Costs this is £379. For every £1 above the work allowance you lose 55p of UC.

In very rough terms, if you do 3 extra hours, you'll gain approx £24 in earnings after tax and lose £13.75 in UC.

I've ignored childcare as (a) it's additional to the above and (b) the amounts payable change in June.

Hope this helps.