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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Children and childcare  →  Thread

UC Childcare costs element and zero s/employment income

Jo_Smith
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Citizens Advice Hillingdon

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Hi guys, my client is s/employed person who has not been making any profit due to Covid. She still goes out and tries to do her job but she has very small number of clients (she is a tour guide).

She asked for her childcare to be paid and was told “We will be unable to approve these costs as this does not meet the work condition.”

As I understand the work condition is to be in paid employment or s/employment- but how does it work with s/employment for period when there is no profit?

Cheers

Jo

Elliot Kent
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Assuming there is no partner, the work condition is that the claimant is in “paid work” which is defined as work done for, or in the expectation of, payment. There is no requirement that the work be for any particular number of hours or is remunerated at any particular rate (or even remunerated at all - provided that the expectation is there).

Whilst it is not relevant to the work condition itself, there is also provision for childcare costs which are considered “excessive” to be refused - see reg 34(2). It may be that this is an issue in the case.

The question will also obviously arise as to whether it’s worth continuing with the work if it is not bringing very much money in, as she will need to fund at least 15% of the childcare costs herself.

[ Edited: 16 Sep 2020 at 07:05 pm by Elliot Kent ]
Jo_Smith
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Citizens Advice Hillingdon

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Total Posts: 325

Joined: 3 October 2018

Many thanks, Elliot