Benefits advice and how messed up the DWP are

Hi all i was originally claiming ESA while my partner was self employed but not really earning much. Up until xmas she was struggling to earn hardly anything so started job hunting. In January she started a job doing 30 hours a week and paid monthly. I had my ESA stopped and first thoughts was i needed to claim something else quickly as my wife would be paid monthly. They sent me the forms to reapply for ESA but 2 weeks later was told we'd get nothing.

I was then told to apply for JSA. We had really started to struggle living minus 263 pounds a week. I followed the JSA guidelines with job hunting to be then told another 3 weeks later i would not get anything. My wife's first wage was gone before we got it with living off what we had to all January. I signed off straight away and applied for working tax credits including back payment. We have still not heard anything and to be honest my wife would be better quitting her job. Does anyone know the usual time for tax credits to be set up please ?

I have questioned the job centre and the JSA phone centre staff. They say everyone is better off working but that's a proven lie. We are still minus 100 pounds a week. Fortunately i should be starting work next week even though after rent and council tax my wage won't be a massive improvement. At least we'll have the satisfaction of working and telling the DWP to shove their money where the sun doesn't shine.

I can really see why people are scared to take jobs now. The thought of a month before getting paid and losing all benefits straight away is a massive worry. I don't know how we coped