Chapter 7 - Increasing your Income by Working

Living on benefits and staying debt-free is very difficult. Getting a job as a single parent can also be difficult, and there are a lot of things to consider:

If you have become a lone parent recently, you may feel that for a certain time work can not be fitted in around dealing with your and your children’s needs.
Will the job fit in with school collection times and available childcare?
Is there good quality childcare available for the times you need?.
Will you be better off in work? You can find out for sure by asking a New Deal for Lone Parents Adviser at your local Jobcentre Plus office or call the Lone Parent Helpline on 0800 018 2026 for advice.
Would it be better in the long-term to take up training or go into education before starting work?

A New Deal for Lone Parents Adviser at your local Jobcentre Plus office may be able to help with vocational training. The flip-side of the coin is that as a single parent your life can be lonely. Work can give us a sense of fulfilment and it’s an important way of getting out and about and meeting new friends. Obviously you need to think it through carefully.

There is a risk in taking work and you have to be sure that it’s a job that you really want and that you and your family will be better-off financially and emotionally. Being out of the house all day and then having the kids all evening can be very tiring and you need to find out what they think, as well as seriously thinking through the issues for yourself. You need to look after yourself just as much as you look after your children!

At a recent Church Action on Poverty – National Poverty Hearing, Moraene, a single parent from North London, expressed some of her views on work and life:

‘We need access to creative and cultural activities, we need to explore our abilities and find positive ways to express our feeling and ourselves…We don’t want to spend the rest of our lives judged by negative labels that are stuck on us by other people. I am a lone parent. I’m not an irresponsible one. I’m disabled, I’m unemployed but not unemployable…We are undervalued and very much underestimated’.

Looking for work

The first step is to contact New Deal for Lone Parents Adviser at the Jobcentre Plus office. New Deal for Lone Parents is the main Government programme to help lone parents who want to return to work. It is a voluntary scheme. You do not have to take up work or training or be available for work and you can leave the scheme at any time. Joining or leaving the scheme will not affect your benefits.

Who can join New Deal for Lone Parents?

You can join New Deal for Lone Parents if you:

are a lone parent aged 16 or over;
have a dependent child under 16;
are not working or working less than 16 hours a week; and
are not an asylum seeker (unless you have exceptional leave to stay or refugee status).

To find your nearest Jobcentre Plus office, ring the New Deal for Lone Parents information line on 0800 868 868 or see www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk.

How can New Deal for Lone Parents help me?

You will have a meeting with a Personal Adviser, who can offer the following:

Help with preparing for and looking for work.
A calculation to work out whether you will be better-off in work.
Help with the costs of looking for work, including help with travel and/or childcare costs to attend meetings and/or job interviews.
Help available, in certain circumstances, with other costs of looking for and/or starting work.
Help with finding and paying for training, including help with any extra travel or childcare costs. If you are thinking of starting a further education or other course, always discuss with your Personal Adviser whether it can be funded by New Deal for Lone Parents. Jobcentre Plus budgets are currently quite tight. This means that less training is now being paid for but it should be available to you if you would not be able to start work without it. Training can also include work-placements.
You can get an additional £15-a-week Training Premium on top of your normal benefits, if you are doing a course or other type of training that was arranged by your Personal Adviser.
Help with finding childcare.
Help to pay for childcare during the week immediately before you start work to enable you to help settle your child into their new childcare arrangements that you need in order to go to work.
Help with childcare costs for up to 52 weeks if you receive a qualifying benefit and move into part-time work of up to 16 hours a week that your Personal Adviser has recommended.
Support if you want to become self-employed. This includes a 26-week test period. During this time, you can carry on claiming benefits and be entitled to receive the £15-a-week Training Premium (if you receive a qualifying benefit) as well as help with childcare costs (see above). Any profits you make will not be available until after the end of your test trading.
Support once you have found work and have started work. This can include help with making benefits and tax credit claims, applying for child maintenance from the Child Support Agency, help with resolving any problems with claims and help with any childcare problems.

Note: help with childcare costs is only available for registered or approved childcare. To find out more about this speak to your Personal Adviser.

In some areas of the country, there are differences to the help available to lone parents who want to start work or training. This is because the Government is trying out different initiatives, which may become available in all areas in the future. In some areas, called Employment Zones, this service is run by private companies, but you can still find out information about going to work from your local Jobcentre Plus.

In some areas you can get extra money on top of your benefits if you join New Deal for Lone Parents and are actively looking for work. Check at your local Jobcentre Plus office if there is any extra help in your area

Applying for jobs

You may need to draw up a Curriculum Vitae (or CV) to send to employers. Again your New Deal for Lone Parents Adviser at the Jobcentre Plus office can help you with this. This is an example of what a CV might look like.

Personal Details	Julie Banks 12 Walter Crescent Birmingham B14 5HU 0121 494 0839 Nationality: British Date of Birth: 03/06/1976
Training/Education	1994-1995 North Clegley College of Further Education NVQ Level 1 in Craft and Design 1987-1994 Clegley Comprehensive School 4 GCSE: Maths; English; French; Art
Employment	1992-1994 Sales Assistant at Woolworths (Saturdays and some holidays) 2002-2006 Assistant at King's Arms (part-time) North Road, Clegley
Other skills/interests	Craft and design Reading Basic typing skills Volunteer helper at local playgroup Good organisational and people skills
References	Available on request

When applying for a job you will usually need to accompany your CV or the application form with a letter of application. In the letter of application try to show how suitable you are for the job. Mention your other skills, which may include being organised, methodical, enjoying working with people, being hardworking, practical and often taking the initiative. Sell yourself!

Ensure that the CV fits the job. This may mean ‘tailoring it’ for different applications. For example, if you are applying for a job in a shop emphasise the previous times you may have worked in shops!

Another area to consider is voluntary work. As well as meeting new people, you can build up skills which can later be transferred to paid work. Some organisations will offer child care facilities and obviously this will affect your decision the most.

They will often pay your expenses and some may offer you free training. Expenses don’t affect your benefits, but remember to let the Job Centre know about your voluntary work if you are claiming Job Seekers Allowance. Voluntary work is a good way to build up confidence and plan for the future.

Financial help when you move from benefits into work

If you stop claiming Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Severe Disablement Allowance or Incapacity Benefit because you start working 16 or more a hours a week, or because your earnings have increased, you may be entitled to some extra financial help.

In-work Credit from April 2008

This is available to lone parents who have been on benefit for 52 weeks before they start work. It is £40 a week (or £60 if you live in London) and is paid for 12 months.

Help with your housing costs

If you have been receiving benefits for 26 weeks before you start work, and the job you are starting is expected to last for 5 weeks or more, you can qualify for:

An extra 4 weeks of Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit. You need to notify Jobcentre Plus or the benefits section at your local authority within 4 weeks of starting work.
An extra 4 weeks of mortgage interest if you were receiving help with mortgage interest as part of your Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance. It is paid at the same rate as the amount being paid with your benefit before you start work. Tell Jobcentre Plus when you will be starting work and the payments will be made to you automatically.

Note: If you were getting help with housing costs as part of your Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and you re-claim within 52 weeks, you will get help with your housing costs straightaway.

Job Grant

If you have been receiving benefits for 26 weeks before you start work, and the job you are starting is expected to last for 5 weeks or more, you can qualify for a Job Grant of £250. The grant is paid automatically but you must give details of your job to your local Jobcentre Plus office before you start work or within 21 days of starting.

The Advisers Discretion Fund

A New Deal for Lone Parents Personal Adviser has the discretion (that is, you do not have a right to it, it is up to your adviser to decide whether you qualify for it) and limited funds to help you with the costs of finding work, for example, buying a new suit to attend an interview or paying upfront childcare costs when you first start work. Spending from the fund is very limited, but talk to your adviser about any extra costs you have.

In-work Emergency Discretion Fund

You may be able to receive a payment from this fund (through your local Jobcentre Plus office) if, in an emergency, you need extra funds in order for you to stay in work.

Child Maintenance Bonus

You may qualify for this bonus if you were receiving child maintenance calculated by the Child Support Agency under the ‘old rules’ (generally this means that the other parent had to start paying maintenance since before March 2003) while on Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance. For details of the amount of the bonus call the Lone Parent Helpline on 0800 018 5026 or ask Jobcentre Plus for an estimate of the amount of the bonus you have built up so far.

Tax when you start work

If this is your first job, or you haven’t worked since becoming a lone parent, it is very important that you notify your employer so that they can ensure you fill out the correct tax forms. If you don’t have all the necessary paperwork done you could end up paying more tax than you should. If you have not worked for part of the tax year check with the tax office whether you are entitled to a tax rebate.

Childcare

Obviously, if you’re going to go out to work you’ll have to make arrangements for your kids if you can’t be there to pick them up from school or look after them at home. Your local council’s Children’s Information Service will have details of local childcare providers.

When choosing what to do you’ll have to consider what would be best in the long run for your child. Will they get adequate educational support? Will they be safe and secure?

To find out more about your local Children’s Information Service visit www.childcarelink.gov.uk or call 08000 96 02 96. Also the Day Care Trust (www.daycaretrust.org.uk) provides information about childcare options.

Paying for childcare You may be able to get help towards the costs of childcare while you are working through Working Tax Credit or through employer’s childcare vouchers. Always check which way you would be better off before accepting childcare vouchers. The childcare must be either ‘registered’ or ‘approved’.

These are the main types of childcare that must be registered and inspected by law:

childminders;
day nurseries;
private nursery schools;
out-of-school services (including after-school clubs and holiday play schemes if providing care for children under eight years of age, or for more than two hours a day);
pre-schools/playgroups;
crèches open for six days or more a year;
nannies working for more than two families, in the family home of one of the children being cared for; and
Childcare providers who join the voluntary part of the Ofsted Childcare Register in England or apply to the Welsh Assembly to be an approved childcare provider in Wales.

The type of childcare for children aged eight and over that could now qualify includes: – activity based childcare (for example, a playscheme); and – childcare provided in the child’s own home (for example, a nanny, but not a child carer who is a parent or relative of the child).

Ofsted or the Welsh Assembly will require the childcare provider to demonstrate that the service they provide is safe and of a suitable standard. You can claim for help with the costs of the above types of childcare, see Benefits and tax credits.

Friends and family as childcarers Many parents feel more comfortable if friends or family look after their child and generally speaking this kind of arrangement can be very flexible and much cheaper. Some children may find it less stressful to stay with someone they know while their parent is at work. However, it is worth bearing in mind that you may not be able to claim financial help with the costs of this type of childcare.

It can also be difficult to deal with any issues about care that may arise when you already have a personal relationship with the person who is providing the care.