Going self-employed and claiming

[TheNewEntrepeneur]

Hi,

I am currently on benefits and would like to go self-employed, I have a few queries and also need to make sure I've got my facts right.

My partner claims incapacity benefit and income support and we have three children, I look after them all a lot of the time and therefore I am also on income support as I don't have to be available for work.

I've checked on HMRC website, DWP and Jobcentre Plus and according to everything I've read I am allowed to work under 16hours and earn £20 per week, anything over is deducted from my income support but we still get our housing and council tax benefits. Whether this is via employment or self-employment is irrelevant.

However, if I go self-employed I will need to apply for a low earnings certificate of exemption in order to get my national insurance stamp paid for me.

Does this mean that I can simply register with HMRC as self-employed, continue to claim our benefits and declare my earnings to the Jobcentre? (and let them deduct anything over £10 that I earn). Is it really that simple?

And how do I actually declare these earnings to the Jobcentre, do I have to visit them weekly/monthly or fill in forms regularly, provide my accounts? What actually consistutes proof of this income?

 

[Bri]

... I was actually told yesterday in the jobcentre by a manager that its a popular thing for people that go self employed sign off benefits immediately. She told me not to, as you will not be earning anything(I imagine you wont be) for the forseeable future. She said to carry on signing and declare your self employment and cite what you have said in your post. Now I havent tried this out yet because I'm finding each advisor has a different bit of information and they never seem to agree, however I'm convinced she was right about this one.

 

[kjfox]

Hi
I,m in the same situation, caring for my wife full-time. You have to be very careful with what the Jobcentre say. You can talk to four different people and get completely different answers, complete nightmare.

Google Carers UK they have a helpline, They should answer your questions. also Google Housing benefit calculator, play about with it and try different options, see what figures come back. It will also tell you if you are entitled to tax credit and how much you should get. It's pretty accurate but not guaranteed.

I've just gone self-employed and come off income support, I don't trust the jobcentre one bit. Scared they would mess up and I would end up owing money and accused of Benefit fraud.

I'm entitled to working tax credit, so what I loose by coming off Income support, I get back with working tax credit.

Good Look

 

[TheNewEntrepeneur]

Thanks for your answers. The fact that four different members of Jobcentre staff would tell me completely different things is one of the things that makes me so skeptical of actually going ahead and doing this.

However, I've read up on it all and this is definitely 100% how it works, so could they really take legal action and accuse me of benefit fraud over it? And if I'm declaring my earnings to them and telling them about any work I'm doing, then how is that fraud?

Last time I spoke to my personal advisor, he basically said you won't find any work that pays enough to cover your rent/council tax and if I go self-employed then there is no help available (which definitely isn't true). It seems that benefit claimants actually know more about it than Jobcentre staff do.

However, it's all in black and white on all the government websites. It's so frustrating, at the moment it seems like the government are doing everything they can possibly do to try and keep me out of work - yet I would actually prefer to be able to contribute to society in some way.

 

[TheNewEntrepeneur]

Just to add to my above post, if I turned to tax credits instead because of my low hours and wage we would actually be worse off and wouldn't be able to pay our rent. Therefore the way I described is the only feasible way of doing so.