Why does the DWP make things so hard?

Yes indeed mate, that wasn't what we had been told initially by the job centre... And I have sorted at least some help with housing and council tax but not a massive amount.
 
If you earn £180 a week before tax, then the housing benefit help should be hefty unless your rent is already very low.

You are entitled to a 1 bedroom property (a couple) and would only be expected to pay less than £40/week out of your take home pay. Most of the council tax will be payable though (likely close to £20/week).

Use the calculator above.

If in the future you work above 30 hours then those benefits will go down but you will be eligible for working tax credits. If you have a child then you only need to work 24 hours to be eligible.
 
Child tax credits paid to households with up to ~£65k/yr was quite nice. Was that generosity ('generosity') not reflective of further down the ladder?

That would have been child benefit rather than child tax credits? If it is the latter then that is a shambles, the withdrawal rate couldn't have been that shallow?

The original premise behind child benefit was that everyone gets it, making it easy to administer and doesn't encourage people not to work.
 
It isn't really putting him worse off. By not working income would be £70/week instead (JSA). Get a bit more housing benefit and council tax benefit, but won't be as much as £180/week total.

If you live in a place with higher rent then you would get higher housing benefit even when you do work (and don't work), so even then it is still financially better to work.
 
That would have been child benefit rather than child tax credits? If it is the latter then that is a shambles, the withdrawal rate couldn't have been that shallow?

The original premise behind child benefit was that everyone gets it, making it easy to administer and doesn't encourage people not to work.
No, it was child tax credits.

Here's a document - check page 6. Looks like it stopped at £60k, so I mis-remembered slightly
http://revenuebenefits.org.uk/pdf/WTC_2_june_2008.pdf
 
It isn't really putting him worse off. By not working income would be £70/week instead (JSA). Get a bit more housing benefit and council tax benefit, but won't be as much as £180/week total.

If you live in a place with higher rent then you would get higher housing benefit even when you do work (and don't work), so even then it is still financially better to work.

You could be a lot better off though, when it comes to council tax.
It's over 1k a year where I am, unemployed pay around £17 a month for ten(?) months.
 
No, it was child tax credits.

Here's a document - check page 6. Looks like it stopped at £60k, so I mis-remembered slightly
http://revenuebenefits.org.uk/pdf/WTC_2_june_2008.pdf

Fair enough. To be fair its just a small amount and is genuinely just a tax rebate since they are paying far more in tax.

I know people without children would find it unfair, but families with children have always been treated better. So have couples.

You could be a lot better off though, when it comes to council tax.
It's over 1k a year where I am, unemployed pay around £17 a month for ten(?) months.

Yes but people that work (with low incomes) do also get council tax benefits. The higher the amount, the more help you get.

I'll admit that the difference isn't massive between working at a low income and not working. But if you make it a more gradual taper (I think currently the effective tax rate is 70% once you get above the personal allowance) then you can end up with people with quite high incomes getting benefits. Politically that usually isn't palatable.
 
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I appreciate all your help and advice guys...

As I said in my OP I get roughly £180 after tax, after filling out the tax credits calculator I don't qualify due to my hourly rate/ hours worked. My fiancee is 29 weeks pregnant and doesn't work so we can't even get it as a couple. We should be entitled to child tax credits and child benefit but it's not a lot, they've slashed the rate for children born after a certain date so that won't be a lot.

My weekly rent is £91, well £100 a week at the moment due to some arrears from needing some time off and not getting sick or holiday pay. My partner has now lost £70 a week because contributions based JSA is over and she's now not entitled to any money because I earn enough to support us according to the DWP. Now yes we will be getting some help from housing and council tax benefit but not a huge amount and that will be taking weeks to come through meaning I'm getting in more debt.

My missus is now having to go onto income support but as far as we've been told so far that will be calculated at the same rate as JSA.

We live in a 3 bedroom housing association house, which we got on the premise of her starting work shortly after moving to Liverpool. Not that we can prove it but that job offer vanished the moment she informed them she was pregnant, We've looked into legal action but certainly can't afford it.

I already have two children from my previous relationship, a boy and a girl who are at the ages now that they really need their own rooms.

If things had gone to plan we would have been fine, things haven't though and as I've said it seems as though everything is geared up against us.

Leaving for work now, a small 4hr shift that after I factor in travel expenses, I don't drive I'm earning money for 2.45hrs before tax and ni contributions. Hoping desperately to find a better job that I can fit around a very restrictive court order in regards to my kids.
 
If you have 2 kids then why arent you getting child tax credits?

Also I'm not sure exactly what you are expecting. The welfare state isn't as generous as newspapers make you believe.

The people that get a lot are those with high rents, and its not like they get to keep that money.
 
Because they live with my psychotic ex partner...

And I'm not expecting anything other than to talk to people who may or may not have some advice or experience that could shine any light on something I've maybe missed.
 
You mentioned they need rooms though?

From the sounds of things, you are now getting everything you are entitled to.

I don't know how joint custody of children works, but there may be additional help there.

Otherwise you want to get a full time job. Not working leaves you worse off than you are now with a part time job.
 
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If you can drive go on the DPD website and get an owner driver franchise. If you can string two sentences together you will walk into it and you'll earn around £30k.

If you can't, go to your local Tuffnells depot and ask about work on mid shift or nights as a loader and you'll walk into that and earn twice as much as you do now.

Also which you don't mention:
Getting to depot at 6:30am and not finishing until 7:30pm.
100 drops per day with varying weights
Depending where the depot is and routes for drops, you could have to drive 1 hour to next to drop.
You also need to pay them £1300 upfront.
You don't get any holiday you also get fined £150 a day if you are sick, OP would really need to consider if this is right for him.
 
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True and that is an option for the OP in Liverpool if he can drive... ditto to minicab firms etc...

There are options out there if you really just need some work, any work. Even courier work is perhaps better than no work if you're desperate.
 
Yes my two children do need their own rooms... While they live with her eternal satanic majesty the majority of the time I have them every weekend and 50% of all holidays. Up until November we where all crammed into a one bedroom flat, seriously not good. My contact order which I've had to fight long and hard for in court is extremely rigid unfortunately right down to exact days and times year in year out because unfortunately any room for negotiation with the ex descends into anarchy.

The ex gets both the child benefit and child tax credits for our children on top of the child maintenance I pay her which admittedly isn't a massive amount at the moment as I have my kids far more than is average.

Unfortunately I don't drive myself, was going to learn this year but that went out the window when the fiancees job offer did.

I'm hammering applications out to pretty much anything and everything part time with the exception of retail security, a job that put me suicidal in the past and I'd like a little variety in my day to day. Hopefully I'll get to interview stage soon with at least some of them. I've always been pretty good at interviews.
 
Surely there has to be some factory work about? You should be doing some home learning if you're only pulling 20-30 hours a week. There are thousands of free courses online which only require a few hours study a week. Granted getting a certificate costs, but even without, it's a good talking point in interviews, and it shows willing to improve through self-motivation and discipline.

https://www.futurelearn.com/
https://www.edx.org/
https://www.khanacademy.org/
 
Not something I'd given much thought too if I'm honest, I had gotten a place on a course at college starting in September but unfortunately their funding has been cut I'd have to pay £170 a month minimum for 10 months which I can't afford.

Thank you mate, will take a proper look at those links when I rouse from my pit....
 
Also which you don't mention:
Getting to depot at 6:30am and not finishing until 7:30pm.
100 drops per day with varying weights
Depending where the depot is and routes for drops, you could have to drive 1 hour to next to drop.
You also need to pay them £1300 upfront.
You don't get any holiday you also get fined £150 a day if you are sick, OP would really need to consider if this is right for him.


Some of that is correct.

You don't do 13 hours, the working day is scheduled around 10.5 hours.The deposit can be taken across the first three invoices.

You also won't be driving an hour between stops (unless in the highlands or DG and TD but what do you expect) and you wouldn't be doing 100 stops out there anyway.

Amost runs are blueprinted at 85 stops and cover a couple of sub postcodes.

I know this because I have rerouted and blueprinted 3 DPD depots over the past couple of years.
 
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