Working hours after maternity leave

[derbyshiregirl]

Hi guys,

I’m meant to be returning to work in April after maternity leave and was going to work part time three days a week, totalling about 24 hours.

My husband says it might be worth working less hours as child tax credit etc top you up and I might actually be doing myself a favour by not doing as many hours. I don’t know much about this stuff as I’ve always just worked full time hours.

Can anyone please advise? X

 

[Gem2212]

Depends how much you both earn, how many kids do you have? Are you currently claiming tax credits? X

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

If youre not currently claiming tax credits then youd need to claim UC.

If you have childcare costs and housing costs you may be entitled to some UC

Its all income related.

 

[Kim Mild]

There are online calculators you can do and put in different potential scenarios, entitled to is one site and there might be one on the gov website. There are tax credit / universal credit fb groups which could be helpful too .

Also consider any childcare costs ( which you may be able to claim towards) and you pension contributions as I reduced my hours and it automatically opted me out of my workplace pension .

Work / live balance is an important consideration too.

 

[Justreading]

Just to give my own experience... I went part time after my 1st. All the calculations re tax credits said I'd be entitled to a fairly reasonable amount (cant remember exactly) I was paying for childcare too. And I got about £7 per month from them!
It may be better now with UC, but check and check again.

Also tax credits are bad news in the long run. We had £7 per month for about a year. My husband lost his job and we had extra for a little while, then he went back to work and they demanded everything and more back! That's 7 years ago and we're still paying them! We've since said we'll never ever get them involved again.

If you have to pay childcare, look into tax free childcare. Not many seem to know about it but it basically pays 25% of your childcare costs for you

 

[Meringue22]

It would be universal credit. A number of benefits have been grouped together to form UC. There is an online calculator you can use. It’s really simple. I sorted mine out online

 

[wizardora]

I work 20 hours, fully depends on both your earnings. We aren’t eligible for anything.
Also as a single parent working 24 hours I still wasn’t eligible for tax credits so it’s worth just doing the online calculator and checking that way.

 

[PinkJen099]

I work 22 hours and because of both our salaries we get nothing.

 

[ManicMayz]

If your partner works full time you're unlikely to be entitled to anything. I was made redundant during my maternity leave last year. Due to start a new job next week for 18 hours and we aren't entitled to anything. Thankfully my in laws will be looking after our son whilst I work. I always planned to/thought I would want to go back when my son was a year but now I wish I could afford to stay off with him for longer.

 

[FakeSmile]

I’ve reduced my hours to 26 per week since having my children but we are still not entitled to any government benefit due to our salaries. I think you’d struggle to get any entitlement if your husband is working full time. My 3 year old only started preschool in September as that’s when he was entitled to the 15 free hours a week. We’d have sent him somewhere sooner otherwise (as he’s painfully shy and the interaction with other children has really helped him) but couldn’t afford to.