reducing my hours

margie1

Hi
I have OA in my lumbar spine and neck, even though my GP says it is only mild I get lots of aching and pain if i do certain things like bending and standing etc.

I started back to work this week and am doing ok i am getting aches and some pain but not so bad at the mo

I have asked to reduce my hours by having friday's off so will be doing 26.5 hours per week, this will give me a 3 days to rest, well hopefully!!! I am worried about the reduction in money but have been told that i may not lose too much because i wont get taxed as much????? has anyone else found that they are not too worse off when they have reduced their hours?

I am also worried that it may affect my pension, I am in the local government pension scheme.
I just hope that I am doing the right thing :oops:

marg :?

chris7

Hi Marg

Not sure if this would apply to you, but when I reduced my hours several years ago from 46 to 30 (which I am now struggling with!!) I found I was eligible for working tax credits. However this is because I am now on such a low income/hourly rate and am single.
Joint household incomes are taken into account if this applies.

I previously had a professional career in local goverment until about 8 years ago and at that time pensions were based on your leaving salary in your final year before retirement. If this is still the case for your area, then yes your pension would be lower by reducing your hours. I would seek advise from personnel or your union on that one.

Let me know if I can help, hope you do cope ok being back at work.
take care
Chris

shockingpink

When I reduced my hours from 37 to28 several years ago I felt quite poor for a while (I'd also reduced my grade) but I soon got used to living within my new means. One thing that happened though was that my previous pension was frozen so that I didn't lose out on the value of my full-time contributions. This might be worth asking about?