You need to work a minimum number of hours each week to get Working Tax Credit.
The way you calculate your working hours depends on what sort of work you do.
How many hours do you have to work each week?
To get Working Tax Credit, you must normally be over the age of 25 and work at least 30 hours a week.
But you only need to work 16 hours or more a week if you or your partner:
- Are aged at least 16 and are responsible for a child or young person Are aged at least 16 and you qualify for an extra payment of tax credits because you're disabled
- Are over 50 and going back to work after being on benefit for at least six months You should expect your paid work to continue for at least four weeks.
How to work out your usual weekly working hours?
You'll need to put the number of hours you usually work in a week on you tax credits claim form. You only count hours for which you are paid don't include unpaid lunch hours.
If you're an employee
Give the total number of hours you usually work and are paid for in a week for all jobs that you do. If you normally work overtime, include this. If your hours vary from week to week, put down what you and your employer(s) think of as your normal number of paid hours.
If you're self-employed
Put down the number of hours you normally spend working in your business, either on work billed to the client or its related activity, for example:
- Trips to wholesalers and retailers
- Visits to potential clients
- Time spent on advertising
- Cleaning the business premises
- Cleaning a vehicle used as part of the business, for example a taxi
- Book-keeping
- Research work
If you work from home, include time spent travelling to see customers.
If you have only just become self-employed, use the average number of hours you expect to work in a week.
If you are a self-employed seasonal worker, you should include time spent on activities concerned with your business, for example taking bookings in winter months. Then take an average excluding the period when no work is done.
If you're a seasonal worker
If you do seasonal work, or your working hours change over the year, show the number of hours a week you're working at the time you make your claim. If you do regular term-time work
If you work a regular number of hours a week, but only during the school term, put down the hours you work during term-time.
If you do agency work
If your work pattern changes from week to week, depending on how much work the agency has for you, you and your employer must decide how many hours you usually work. Just being registered with an agency and being available for work isn't enough to qualify.
If you do on-call work
If you do on-call work, your working hours are those which you are called-out. For example, if you are called out four nights in a week for four hours at a time, your total hours for that week will be 16 (four nights x four hours = 16 hours in total).
If you're on standby
If you're on standby and have no fixed pattern of work, you should tell us what you expect your normal hours to be, not counting time on standby - when you are not paid.
For example, if you expect to be called out three nights per week for seven hours at a time, your normal anticipated hours would be 21 per week (three nights x seven hours per night = 21 hours per week in total).
