so you’ve had no work most of the year and your on the box
no one wants to do cash in hand so your declaring your odd agency days
then bingo you do more than 16 hours and they get you to sign off
then you sign on again because you dont have regular work
then work picks up regular 2 days a week over 16 hours
you think WORKING PERSONS TAX CREDIT 
you live on your own
you will not be entitled to WPTC
because your not doing 30 hours a week 
who makes these rules
Can fully sympathise with you hitch. I had a similar experience earlier this year. I was fed-up of phoning job centre all the time to sign off and back on again. Never received a penny from the government, because my Wife works full time out family tax credit only went up by £10 per week. It 's a joke. It makes you wonder if we are the silly ones for working hard to earn a decent wage to keep our families. Sorry nearly went into a rant there.
Hope things work out for you.
you also forgot that it’s not from the date you make the claim, it’s the date they decide by yr national insurance number.
plus first four days don’t count.
if single yr allowed 16 hrs if married 24 between the two of you, three hrs waiting and doing paper work to be told claim dis allowed cause i worked 15 hrs my wife worked 12 hrs
regards
Paul
Been unemployed 11 months now, but I won’t do agency work for exactly this reason. I thought they wanted to get us back to work…
It would be better if they worked it out on an ongoing average rather than what is done in a set week.
That way the option would be there for people to work for perhaps 4 days in a week and then nothing for 3 weeks etc without having to sign off and on again.
The average worked hours limit could then be spread over a greater period.
I’ve had the same crap from the JC.
I was on CONTRIBUTION Based JSA for 6 months, but then it transferred to INCOME Based JSA. As my better half works more than 24hrs a week, I’m not entitled to any money but am supposed to travel to the JC and sign for my NI credits. What a joke.
How the hell can they call it INCOME based when they have no idea of what comes in, or better still, what goes out of our house?
I’ve seen this problem from the other side. I used to work for a health authority and we employed drivers to go around to our various sites collecting and delivering. Easy work, 40 hours a week and no overtime.
A driver going on holiday had a mate who was out of work so I took him on to cover the break. He worked for two weeks and seemed quite happy. When I phoned him a couple of weeks later a cover another driver’s holiday I was surprised when he turned it down. He explained that when he had gone back to sign on again they had treated him as a new applicant; loads of forms to fill in and then waiting time before they started his benefit again.
I phoned the Benefit Office see if there wasn’t some way around all this rigmarole but all they could say was “That’s the rules.”
It really is a tricky situation, there are very easy workarounds to this situation as above but - no! Rules is rules - it would be funny if it wasn’t so stupid. Sympathy to anyone caught up in the trap.
im same as u Darby flyer,signed on told them everything bout wife workin p/time etc etc,did 2 shifts on agency (18hrs)n i had to wait for a tribunal 2 decide my fate(they didnt stop my claim to start with)paid me £48 per fortnight but paid the intrest payments on my mortgage then stopped payin me anything as tax credits told em my wifes workin p/time as i told em now i get naff all but expected to sign on for ni contribution??been workin for last 20 years prob had a total of 1 1/2 yrs out of work in that time(6 mths no licence due to ill health)its all a load of tosh :imp: ive got sleep aponea and went for an assesment/medical questionarre scored 0 out of 12 so they stopped my incapacity benefit,cos all the qs were about walking upstairs,making a meal,walking,etc etc 
sorry got a bit carried away 