Help shortening my work hours and anything I maybe entitled to or able to claim

[Flatliner]

I had heart attack and cardiac arrest a couple of year ago ,and soon as possible jumped back in to work driving 50 hour week ,I'm feeling now it's to much but feel if I drop my hours I wouldn't be able to support my self ,I mean I don't want to work myself in to a grave for minimum wage, but I also don't want to end up on the streets or struggling just to get buy , any advice would be appreciated

[Hidden]

If you’re fit to work full time but there is a day to day impact from your health, then the main option to boost your income to be able to lower your hours would probably be to look at whether you’re eligible for personal independence payments. PIP is not means tested, but it’s paid on the basis of how your condition effects you, so only helpful if you have sufficient symptoms and problems arising from the underlying condition to make you eligible. If you’re having difficulty working full time due to your health, then aside from PIP, going part time and applying for universal credit might be another option. Although, UC is means tested, so how much you earn and any savings you have may impact on your eligibility and, if you are eligible, how much you get. I would suggest plugging your details into a benefits calculator like the one at turn2us.org.uk (using the number of hours you would want to work in an ideal world) and see what numbers come back: it should be taken as a guide rather than a promise, but I’ve used it a few times over the last ten years and found it to be very accurate. They don’t store any information about you or anything like that. The other obvious option would be to look at changing jobs to something that’s financially about the same but less hours and/or less stressful, but I think we all know that in and of itself isn’t necessarily easy.

It might be worth making an appointment to chat to someone from citizen’s advice: they can give you much more accurate advice tailored to your personal circumstances than anyone here probably can, and will also know all the ins and outs of universal credit and the DWP.

[Bingo88]

Perhaps look into if you would be entitled to benefits working shorter hours due to health reasons or speak with your boss and see if you can cut back to a basic 37.5 hours if you can manage on that. I used to be a driver and did 15 hour days Monday to Friday. Because no tachos In vans. I sometimes wonder now how I did it. Remember you are replaceable your health isn't. Take care. Brian

[Hidden]

There were a few posts on here recently about reducing contracted workload and/or hours due to ill health, and some of the posts concerned a driver. My understanding is the employer has a legal responsibility to take 'reasonable' steps to accommodate an employee whose circumstances have changed due to illness. The problem seems to be that there is no proper legal definition of what is reasonable. And what this means is outcomes vary on a case by case basis according to the job itself, the availability of alternative work, the flexibility of the company, and importantly the requirements of the employee. There will certainly be other considerations . So all you can do is to first talk to your employer and find out how accommodating they can be and hope that you can both find a solution that works for you and them too.

[Hidden]

You can apply for pip to help your income this isn’t means tested so you can still work , you can also cut your hours down and get tax credits to top up they wages , give the uc a wee call and they will help you figure it all out, definitely apply for pip as well x