Does anyone know if there is a minimum that the wife would have to work to continue to be eligible to claim our tax credits.

Wife has been thinking of cutting back to part time as the working hours doesn't fit in with the stepdaughters school timetable and our unoffical childcare/school pick-up person has had a change of circumstances as well.

But if we cut back hours will we lose out or gain?

any advice greatly received...

We have approached her manager to try and find some friendly middle ground - but not holding our breath, seeing one of the new rules at the wifes work is you must speak English to each other (her and other Thai person there)
I don't think they are a very supportive workplace..
As we all know there are plenty of people in the, new to the UK prepared to under cut the conditions and work whatever hours the manager asks.

- Skippy

The way I understand how it works is the lower the income the more tax credits you're likely to get ( it's banded ). It's supposed to boost low income families & also goes on combined income for you & the wife but if it's only you working then it will only go on your income....so your wife not working or on a low wage will not harm your claim. The cut off point is around £58k earned per financial year for the family. I think I'm right in saying this but no doubt will be corrected if not.

Thanks Casey

- We probaly needed to keep the wife working as close to full time as possible - for maternity leave type stuff in the future

any other ideas

Skippy

Skippy

If you are talking about working tax credits, I think the rate paid depends on the number of hours worked. If she does less than 30 per week then I think the rate would fall.

Having said that, if you can find an 'official', ie registered childminder to take over from your current one, then you could claim most of the cost of that through tax credits as well!

Skippy,

It's a pretty complicated calculation but the bottom line is that any additional tax credits you might receive due to a drop in income will not wholly make up any lost wages.

You might be best to phone the helpline and ask them for a SEES eligibility estimation and they will be able to tell you what you might get.

As for the childcare you can claim up to 80 per cent of your costs and the maximum costs you can claim for a single child is 175 quid a week just now. So you can get 80 pc of the 175.

This will all be factored into the estimation you get.

Any idea of how one goes about finding an official registered child minder

Your local authority/council web site should hold a list of officially registered child minders...at least ours here in Flintshire does.

quote:

Any idea of how one goes about finding an official registered child minder

It used to be the case that Local Authorities were responsible for registering Child Minders. However that is no long the case. It is now done by Ofsted, the same organisation that examines schools.

Go to http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/ . There you will see that if you enter your postcode in box 2 and then click on the button in 4, you will get a list of approved Childminders in your area.

Hope this helps.

Flintshire web site still has an up & running list of registered child minders so I'm sure your local government site may have the same....&/or John's link above.

Thanks for the answers so far guys.

What about the "European working family directive" or that just bull, isn't the employer supposed to be a bit flexible when it comes to family time?

The whole thing is if they let her go a couple of minutes
( about 30 mins to be safe) on some days then she made the time up on a couple of other days the whole thing would be solved - but the seem too lazy to see that.

The comment the wife got is something along the lines you can't have it all your own way but basically she was just asking??

I am not happy about the English only rule and have asked for that one in writing (to no avail)
- Look I know we are in England but if you are paying people less that £6 an hour I feel you should have the right to demand that their English is perfect ( the wifes English is pretty good by the way - it is obviously unnatural to speak to another Thai in English for them both)


any comments

thanks Skippy

Should I post the English only rule under another thread for comments??

quote:

I am not happy about the English only rule and have asked for that one in writing (to no avail)
- Look I know we are in England but if you are paying people less that £6 an hour I feel you should have the right to demand that their English is perfect ( the wifes English is pretty good by the way - it is obviously unnatural to speak to another Thai in English for them both)

Skippy in Roche the working language is English even here in Switzerland but for social communication and for meetings where everyone speaks German its up to the employees.

ash

quote:

quote:
I am not happy about the English only rule and have asked for that one in writing (to no avail)
- Look I know we are in England but if you are paying people less that £6 an hour I feel you should have the right to demand that their English is perfect ( the wifes English is pretty good by the way - it is obviously unnatural to speak to another Thai in English for them both)

Thanks Ash - I meant to say the really shouldn't have the right to demand that they all speak English all the time.

I think from re readinng my hurried post that it seems I agree with the wifes bosses - oops

Skippy