Full/Part time or unemployed

norhers

I am disabled with Spina Bifida. I use crutches, wheel chair for longer walks and have arthritis/bone disease. I struggle with pain and therefore sleep patterns are uneven. I worked full time but now asked employer to go part time due to pain/fatigue. I would loike to ask is it better financially to be full time or part time or not at all. Would benefits help who would you recommend to ask as maybe need more figures to work it out. I dont get carers allowance (although never applied as my wife does not care 35 hours a week I would imagine) I have standard PIP care and enhanced mobility. Any help would be great as I never reduced hours and paying bills/mortgage is going to be tricky.

Sam_Alumni

Hi @norhers and welcome to the community.

I have moved your post to the ask a benefits advisor category so they can help.

I am not a benefits expert by any means, but if your health circumstances have changed then maybe you need to reassess your benefit needs?  There is a PIP self test you can do online, it might be worth having a look at that to see if you may be entitled to the higher rate of PIP?

You can also use the benefits calculator to see what benefits you may be entitled to.

Hopefully, one of our brilliant benefits advisors will be along soon and can offer you some information and support.

salwil89

@norhers hello. Having read your case, I would strongly suggest that you talk to your employer first before you make any move. The benefit system is encouraging companies to be more supportive towards disabled employees. So please do yourself a huge favour and see what support they can offer. 

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hello norhers

This depends on a number of factors including your current level of earnings, any other income or savings you/your partner have, the amount of outstanding mortgage etc.

But there are some principles i can share with you. As you get PIP you would almost certainly be able claim Working Tax Credit with a disability element. Again this will also depend on your earnings but you can work as few as 16 hours per week and qualify for Working Tax Credit in this way. If you live in a full service area for Universal Credit you probably won't be able to claim Working Tax Credit and the advice will be different.

Your wife may qualify for Carer's Allowance. She will have to care for you 35 hours per week but there is no clear definition of what counts as care and most partners are able to qualify, subject to some other conditions such as not earning above £110 per week. I would strongly suggest she looks into this further.

If you would like us to give you a better idea of the help that is available through Working Tax Credit (or Universal Credit) then you should provide us with the following information...

• Your joint (both for you and your partner) taxable income for the year 2015/16.
• Your expected joint taxable income for 2016/17.
• Your and your partner's current weekly or monthly gross earnings.
• Any other income/savings/capital you or your partner has.
• Whether you have any dependent children living with you.
• The local authority where you live (so we can check for Universal Credit).

Thanks
David

norhers

Thanks everyone for your help and pointing me in the right direction. I will now review to see if my wife is classed as my carer although that 35hrs a week seems an unusual figure. I think my employer can't help financially apart from paying me what I earn but I think I could get some help on the tax credits as I did a benefits calc online and that helped too. Thanks again as it's great to know that people are kind, knowledgeable and helpful.

ADEtope2

when i saw the level of support and help here, I was surprised, elated and extremely happy. THANK YOU EVERYBODY
@BenefitsTrainingCo:  THANK YOU.
@EverybodyTalks: THANK YOU.