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Part-time work
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Work & Study
I'm looking to start working part-time in a paid position. I'm on Income Support so can work up to 16 hours per week. I've seen three jobs I'd like to apply for but they are all for 21 hours a week. Should I apply anyway? It seems like in job ads that the least hours is 18.5 hours or 21 hours most of the time.
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I probably should have given more info in my original post. I am disabled due to ill mental health and this will be my first paid job for over 5 years.
I get physically very tired if I am on my feet too much so need a job where I will mostly be sat down for example an office job. This rules out most shop work (unless I was on a check out sat down) and bar or restaurant work. I have, prior to getting this ill worked in various shops and in a catering company but don't feel I could do these roles now. In the autumn of last year I volunteered doing administration at a hospice but I found it physically quite tiring as my work was quite space out, I would often have to go to other floors in the hospice and get up and down a lot from my desk and was on my feet a lot so after a few months of not making it in often I had to give it up.
Also, I am the opposite of thick skinned. I am reluctant to take on a customer facing role (either face to face or telephone) as I don't want to face abuse from members of the public. This rules out telesales (which I have done in the past), most customer services and shop work. It doesn't take much to really upset me and I need to be realistic with what I take on.
I am keen to develop a career in the charity sector. I have quite a lot of voluntary experience which could count towards a career beginning in this sector so that would be good. I saw an advert for 14 hours a week tele-fundraising but I spoke to my step-mum about it and she doesn't think I am confident enough or thick skinned enough for that role and I tend to agree. I also have been volunteering recently as a trust fundraiser at a charity and I really enjoy this, I work with a great team of people and can sit at my desk so I don't usually get too tired. It involves writing letters and applications which I'm okay at and I have been sucessful with some bids which has helped my confidence. I have found some roles as junior trust fundraisers but they are full time and I have found some part-time roles but they are too senior for me at the moment. I don't mind doing something different though if I have the experience to get it and it will suit me.
Any suggestions are welcome.
I'll keep an eye on the guardian jobs website too. I usually look on charityjob.com quite regularly to see what comes up.
Another thing to think about is that you can claim working tax credit if you work 16 hours a week or more as you have a disability which puts you at a disadvantage in finding work and you have been on income support due to incapacity for work and/or disability. But working tax credit is treated as income for housing benefit and council tax benefit so these benefits may be reduced. You will still keep your disability premium on HB/CTB though as you will still be receiving DLA.
Before you take up any job I'd recommend that you make an appointment with your CAB or give Community Legal Advice a call on 0845 345 4345 to have a 'better off' calculation carried out, to see what you're getting now and whether you'd be better off financially working. Alternatively look at entitledto.co.uk. If you can't make sense of it let me know, I have the benefits calculator at work and can do it for you.
Kermit yes, I realise it is complicated, thanks for pointing these things out as the situation may be worse than I thought. I fully expect to be worse off if I work (I know if I was working full time without benefits my earnings would be about £10,000+ less than what I get now) but I am ready to accept less money for a start at a career. I think eventually my benefits will get taken away and would like to get off them first. One possibility that we've discussed is me moving in with Randomboy and living off his salary plus a part-time wage that I could earn.
The scary thing is that I don't even know if the work thing will work out. I know in my voluntary work I have taken a lot of time off (to the extent that if it was paid I would have been sacked by now) but they are flexible. Also I only do about 9 hours of voluntary work a week and part-time work is probably a bit more than that.
I think I might contact Work Directions (or whatever they are called now) as they are quite helpful.
Also found a promising job on charityjob.com last night that is only 14 hours.
£95 per week is just shy of £5000 per year.
Quite how that's supposed to encourage anyone back to work I'm not sure - not that this is a criticism of you at all.
If you want to progress your career, how about sticking with volunteering - and if there's something you want to do maybe even making a direct approach to a company to see if you can volunteer with them to do it.
Thanks. I am in the lucky position of already having a great voluntary job with a very understanding charity doing something which I would really like to do as a career. I guess I'll stick with it until changes in benefits means I can't or I get told I'm well enough to work.
Thanks, I hadn't heard of that. It looks good. I'll remember it for the future.
I get their emails, they're good