Benefit help?

[NaatQ968]

Hi all.

Myself and my partner have always worked.

I earned 27567 and he earns now 32k

My work is being transferred to another company and are basically giving me no choice but to accept a part time position within that company.

The salary is half so around 13000.

This is apparently classed as a low income household, but when I go on the benefits calculation it says I'm entitled to nothing. We have an 11 month and I just don't know what to do. There's no local jobs I can take as none are flexible with me coming back from maternity.

Any advice? Very stressed and really upset. Totally stuck.

Your "half" salary would be classed as a low income, but your joint income or household income would not be considered low by DWP standards.

With a household income of £45k I don't think you would be entitled to any universal credit.

Obviously you'll still get child benefits and if you're using childcare you'll be able to use the 20% tax free childcare scheme.

EntitledTo.co.uk is supposed to be accurate but you say you've been through other calculators and they say no entitlement so I don't know that it will give you any different an answer,

Very unlikely you'd get any Uc with one child unless you have high rent costs and childcare costs.

We own our house. I read online that anything under 50k per household is a low income household and that's what we are. I don't have childcare costs as I can't afford it.

I just did a quick UC calculation estimating take home pay between you at around £2700 per month ( I may be way out estimating that for a salary of 45k ), and it showed zero entitlement to UC. You can check on one of the online calculators though.

Thank you for the advice ❤️❤️

Some may say 50k income is a low income but for benefits it just depends on your situation. if you rented and had childcare costs you would get significant costs but with a mortgage you don't get so much as those who rent and with one child you just don't qualify for anything except child benefit.

Thanks, seems pretty backwards really. Paid into the system since I was 16, fallen on some hard times this year but get no help. Thought I was doing the clever thing but seems not haha

This is our joint income which works out at around £2700 take home. I have never thought about it as low to be honest as just keep an eye on what we spend but haven't really struggled.

If the new working hours give you a day off maybe you could take on a one day a week job temporarily even on minimum wage would help.

The benefit calculators including entitled to.com are not very accurate, you can do a manual calculation that would be more accurate. If your on Facebook there's a group called universal credit and legacy benefits advice, you can get the info from that group to do a manual calculation and someone from the group can check its correct for you.