As flashy has said the amount of financial help that is out there to get back to work is alot more than people realise.
The question of immature 11 year olds (said immature as some 11 year olds are very mature) left on there own is covered by childcare up to the age of 16 that can be claimed as part of your working/child tax credit awards.
There is also a 4 week cross over regarding benefits to allow people to adjust to going back to work, there's help with costs for attending interviews and purchasing smart clothes for interviews which is monitored.
A point I really want to make which is especially relevant to people in rented housing..when notifying housing/council tax benefit that you have started work and have put a claim in for tax credits, they CANNOT wait until your tax credit award comes through to work out your housing benefit entitlement, they have to base it on your wage and then when your tax credit award is sorted they have to reassess your benefit claim and can only treat any back payment of tax credits as savings and upto £6000 is disregarded!! Also any maintenance you may receive from a former partner is not classed as income for tax credit purposes but is for housing/council tax benefit purposes
Any queries on how your benefits could be affected please ask on here or by pm
