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You could get up to £60 a week In Work Credit if you’re a single parent and you stop claiming benefit because you’re starting work or self-employment.
You have to qualify, and apply for In Work Credit within 5 weeks of starting work or self-employment.
Any money you get isn’t taxed and won’t affect your other benefits.
[box type=”warning”] You must have started claiming a qualifying benefit on or before 1 October 2012[/box]
Eligibility
To qualify for In Work Credit you must:
- be a single parent with a child under 16
- start your job before 1 October 2013
- expect your job to last at least 5 weeks
- work at least 16 or more hours a week on average
- earn at least the National Minimum Wage
- stop claiming a ‘qualifying benefit’
- go straight from claiming the benefit to starting your job
- claim it within 5 weeks of starting your job
Work can include self-employment.
Qualifying benefits
You must have:
- been getting a qualifying benefit for at least 52 weeks before starting work
- started claiming the qualifying benefit on or before 1 October 2012
London
To qualify, you must stop getting one of these benefits before you start work:
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Incapacity Benefit
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income Support
Outside London
To qualify, you must stop getting one of these benefits before you start work:
- Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income Support
- Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) paid for under 13 weeks
Your Employment and Support Allowance will only qualify if you got it because both of these apply:
- your child was too old for you to qualify for Income Support
- you were too ill to qualify for Jobseeker’s Allowance
Exceptions
You might still qualify if your partner was claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or Income Support and you were getting benefit.
What You Could Get
You’ll get:
- £40 a week if you live outside London
- £60 a week if you live in London
Jobcentre Plus can tell you if you qualify as living in London for In Work Credit.
You can get In Work Credit for up to a year, as long as you carry on working an average of 16 hours or more a week and continue to meet the other conditions for getting In Work Credit.
No new awards of In Work Credit will be made from 1 October 2013.
How you’re paid
All benefits, pensions and allowances are paid into an account, eg your bank account.
How to Claim
Within 5 weeks of starting work contact your local Jobcentre Plus and ask for an In Work Credit claim form.
[box type=”warning”] You must have started working on or before 30 September 2013[/box]
Hi I have been claiming the in work credit or back to work credit as it is apparently known as now for 5 months. I have had to change my bank account and wanted to contact them in regards to the new details. This is proven harder than extracting blood from a stone?! Please could you help me with a telephone no.
Thanks
Back to work credit is handled by your local Jobcentre. The best link I can find is the one to find your local jobcentre. I would phone them or call into them instead of using email to contact them. http://los.direct.gov.uk/default.aspx?type=1&lang=en
The number for in work credit is 01900 608 812 it took nearly ten calls to 0845 numbers to get it but then they handled my enquiry well hope this helps
hi there the number that is stated on here 01900 608 812 is only if u live in Cumbria and lanc … best way on getting the correct number is via your local job centre .. poor office is getting constant calls from all over the country
Hi been in touch with the jobcentre several times no luck been into the jobcentre in shrews and spoke one of the managers was given the tax credits no and they were no help? Was also given the inland rev no lol… no one seems to know nothing about it. Was also told today that it was called return to work credit….thats not true either as that is to do with long term disability and coming back to work from that???
Have you looked at the contact details on the letters that would have been sent to you telling you what they were going to be paying you etc ? There will be contact details on there.
Will have to have a look for it. I just had one from them asking for payslips to proove Im still working and instead of sitting down and writing a quick not of attachment I shuved the letter in with the payslips GRRR. Thanks for the reply – hopefully they will send in back with the payslips?
I started work last May after being on benefits for over 15 months. I knew nothing of this IN WORK CREDIT. I have been trying to claim the money since Feb but as I did not claim within 5 weeks of starting work I am on longer able to get this. I DID NOT KNOW anything about this so can someone please explain how to claim for something when you dont know what it is ……….
I am at my wits end now as the money would have been a god send and paid for my travel into London every week
Hi Anne.. In reply to your qs, i also had no idea about In work credit and found out about it a year later after i had started work. However, i have contacted my local jobcentre, made an appointment with a personal advisor,i completed the form for the in work credit because it was their job to inform me and since they didnt they had to accept the claim. So then my local jobcentre submitted my claim to the IWC team, theyve prcessed my application, i sent them payslips.. and a week later i recieved my money!
hey just wondering if you are still able to claim this credit as a single parent or has this stopped now? on local hmrc website its says you must have a health issue?
There are two benefits. Return to work credit is just for parents who have a health condition and In Work credit is for those who dont have a health problem https://www.confessionsofasinglemum.co.uk/benefits-single-mums/in-work-credit-change/
Hi, my in work credit ends in December. I will be short of £240 per month. Will this be compensated in anyway i.e. housing benfefit or working tax credits. I am worried how I will find this amount towards my rent ??
Many thanks Debbie
Depends on your circumstances but I would ring holding benefit and check with them and rsc credits too. You can also check the benefit calculator at turn2us.
After being on jsa for 18 months I was then referred on the work programme, but found a job myself so signed off at the job centre. I started work in August 2012, I knew nothing about this credit until a work colleague in a similar situation to myself told me about it. I went to my job centre asked about this. they told me it was the responsibility of the work programme coz that’s who I’d been referred to. To which the work programme told me was the responsibility of the job centre. who then told me it was too late to now apply for . how do you apply for things u do not know about. I am now seeking advice and feel very positive reading these comments
I’m hoping somebody knows who I should call about “In work credit”. I signed off benefits on 16th Sep. and was told I was entitled to the £40/week in work credit, forms filled in & left with the job centre. I was told it takes about four to six weeks for the claim to go through, so now it is six weeks and I haven’t received anything, so I called them today on 0845 608 8554. That turned out to be the national number for UK and I was told I need to speak to the main job centre for my area. They gave me the number to dial, 0845 604 3719. They told me that I need to speak to my local job centre, so I called them on the local direct line number I have for the advisor who has been helping me whilst unemployed. All she could tell be was that the forms had been sent off to the main job centre, who handle the in work credit. She also told me that the local job centre used to handle the claims but no longer do. She gave me a number to call, 0845 608 8545. I called the number and spoke to a lady who told me I need to speak to my local job centre. I told her I’m caught in a circle being passed around with nobody seeming to know who deals with in work credit claims, to which she apologised and told me to try calling again later. My next step is to write to them, but which address? There’s no point going to my local job centre because they will only tell me what they told me over the phone. I’m trying to get a business started that will take anything up to six months before I can draw a salary, so I need the £40 to pay towards my rent. I’ve already received a formal letter telling my to pay up my rent arrears. I guess CAB could help but that’ll be £5.60 just to get there and hope to be seen to before they close.
So, if anyone has any useful phone numbers or addresses for the department that deals with in work credits for Pembrokeshire in Wales, please let me know. I’m bookmarking this page to check back over the next few days.
Thank you to ‘Confessions of a single Mum’ for this blog and allowing me to comment here.