Tax Credits...need 16hr contract? Or as long as you work 16hrs?

[redhappy]

Have been offerred a new job. Will be an 8 hour a week contract initially, in a few months hopefully will be 16hr contract.

It's all technicalities for the companies 'baseline' labour. Basically, they are definitely going to give me 16hrs work a week.

In terms of tax credits and the childcare contribution, is is how many hours you have a contract to wrok? or how many hours you actually work?

how many hours you actually work

But don't they calculate your tax credits on working a 16 hour week so you will end up repaying it if you drop below 16 hours? IIRC once you drop below 16 hours you can't claim tax credits, it's not pro-rata'd for less hours.

Not sure what I'm trying to explain here or even if that's helpful .

It is OK as long as your AVERAGE working hours are 16 per week. So you can work 32 hours for 2 weeks then 0 hours for 2 weeks, and you will still meet the criteria for Tax Credits.

Decision Makers' Guide is here

Thankyou, there are definitely enough hours for me to do 16hrs per week, just that, my contract will say minimum of 8.

Will ring them on monday just to check, but I was offered the job this morning so felt like I couldn't get excited.