Universal credit advice

[pocketsmile]

So. I’m now a single mum. I was working 4 days a week (26 hours) then upped to 5 (33 hours). Recently gone through a hard break up and now I’m looking to drop back down to 4 days, financially will I be better off for this as in universal credit will top up what I lose and won’t pay tax and insurance? I will also get to spend an extra day with my toddler which I’m looking forward to as I want to spend as much time with him as possible?
thanks

It’s based on your income not your hours worked so you need to tell us your monthly salary.

Plus how many children you have, if you rent etc. there are loads of factors you should use the entitledto website to find out

You are almost never "better off" on UC.

You have an amount of UC you are entitled to based on your personal circumstances eg rent, number of kids etc. Then for every £1 you earn, your uc is reduced by 55p.

It's fact you actually are if you earn a certain amount as a single parent. Meet the (don't know the abbreviation) and not go a penny above, you get everything.

What amount is that then ?

UC won’t match wages lost although you will gain slightly more UC as you’ll have less wage deductions.

That was tax credits, not UC.

I believe it's AET ?

Just going off from disclosure, a parent works a certain amount of hours to get paid a certain amount of wage to ensure she gets 'full whack' disclosure from benefits.

When offered promotion, turned down, because would earn too much to receive full paying of rent and other advantages.

Just talking from experience about the clients I deal with daily.

There will never be a situation where someone is better off on UC then in work. However, there are situations where the difference doesn't feel worth it to the claimant. For example, if they get £800 on UC alone and £900 when working, they might not think that £25 per week is worth 16 hours of work (wildly made up numbers).

lol no.
If you earn just the work allowance or less which is
£427 if you have kids / housing costs
£710 if you have no housing costs.
then you’ll have no wage deductions from UC

But you have to earn £881 not to be benefit capped
and least £952 on a single claim which is the AET not to have appointments and work commitments.

So no there isn’t an amount where they get everything

You won't be better off and depending on the ages of your kids if they are close to being non dependent think about what happens when your Uc comes to an end.

This used to be more of a thing when there was a lower hours requirement for parents of younger kids. There was a real sweet spot of doing around 16-20 hours, earning so little you pay almost no tax & NI, and getting topped up by UC.

But now once a child turns 3 you are expected to look for 30 hours work.

How old is your (youngest?) child?

I doubt you'll be better off working fewer hours unless there's some information missung in OP.

UC's work allowances and taper are designed to ensure more/better paid work actually puts cash in your pocket.

Yep, Tax Credits had sweet spots and cliff edges.

UC is linear.

Yes that's true but only at age 3 and it gives access to help with childcare to encourage gping to work.

Especially if those 16 hours are costing them money - travel, parking, childcare (UC don't pay it all) etc. You can actually end up worse off when everything is factored in not just literal money in. Or as you say, the gain is so marginal that it isn't worth it if you have young children, SEND, bereavement, difficult divorce etc to navigate as well. No one in their right mind is going to put their vulnerable child into a highly disregulating situation or them self through loads of extra stress at a tough time for £2 - £3 a week net extra.