JA, Wifes income.

I am claiming for my wife as a qualified adult dependent she works p/t 3 or 4 days a week , she has been assesed as having means of 22 euro p/w based on the income she recieves from her job. Okay all straight forward so far,now she is being told by her boss that she must be at his beck and call as to what days he wants her to work,up to now she worked no more than 4 days including sunday,but now she is being ordered to work whenever her boss feels like it. Last week she was only given 2 days,10 hrs,this week he wants her in 5 days including Patricks day,he is being a right pain over this and says if she dosent do as he says he will fire her. My question is 2 fold.

1) If she agrees to this and works more that 3 days,will she lose out by being reduced in her payment as a qualified adult? I understand she can earn a maximum of 310euro p/w,but am i right in saying she cannot work more than 3 days?

2)Can her employer just do this without prior notice? She is only working there for 9 mths and was given a 6 mth probationary contract,however after the 6 mths she was not issued with another contract so it seems a bit funny to me,I mean on one hand she is P/t and on the other she has no set contract? Also the employer says he will not pay her overtime for paddys day and she just has to come in,again this seems totally wrong to me,sorry for the rambling post any help would be appreciated.

When assessing spouse's earnings, €20 per day is disregarded, for a maximum of 3 days per week.

If your wife works 3 days per week, €20 per day of her assessable earnings (total €60) is deducted from her earnings, and the balance is assessed at 60%.

If your wife works 4 days per week, the max which can be disregarded is still only €60 (20 x 3), so more of her income would be assessed as means.

Depending on earnings, you may not lose all the Qualified Adult rate though.

You could check out [broken link removed] for information on her change in working hours, etc.

thank you very much for your reply gipimann, makes things a lot clearer