Ghost Hunters SOA

TotallyBroke

Looking back over your SOA and you have made a mistake about your council tax. You say you get a monthly benefit of £384.32 and you pay £64 on top. That would make the council tax for your property £448.32 per month!!!
Also what size property are you renting for £500 per month. Could you not downsize to a one or two bedroom property.

GhostHunter_3

Hi

My husband is Self Employed and works full time. Therefore we are entitled to Working Tax Credits. He earns peanuts so all income is re-invested to keep hisbusiness running, any additional 'cash in hand' often gets used to keep up his own repayments on his own finaces. Even though we are married we keep our finaces separated these past few years as I cannot rely on him to stay out of debt, I am trying to improve our debt / credit score so separating our accounts and income was first step!

Only I am on Incapacity Benefit. I have AS but was previously also Self Employed. Although I am signed off sick it doesnt mean I spend all day every day at home indoors! AS is a progressive condition, pain management has good and bad days and flare ups in between. I still feel I need contents insurance not just for the potential burglary but miss-haps and unforseen floods caused by faulty equipment etc. I said we dont go out very often, I meant for paid entertainment, not full stop.

I have looked for work, either my qualifications are ourdated or it would take too long to re-train (and I would lose benefits so would put us both in even worse position). If I could manage to go out to work part or full time beleive me I would!

Mobiles - I have considered this. My husband already has a contract mobile but I switched mine a few years ago back to Pay and Go as I hardly ever use it. Mainly text anyway. I also find people are more reluctant to call mobiles I know I am.


Sky - I am being stubbourn about this its less costly than many hobbies and addictions £30 x 2 people is £15 a month or 7.50 a week (£3.75 each a week) less than a night out for 7 days viewing.


Will try and fathom out the details of the credit cards.

Many thanks I am listening to advice and looking at other boards to find more helpful hints.

Timmne

GhostHunter wrote: »

Hi

My husband is Self Employed and works full time. Therefore we are entitled to Working Tax Credits. He earns peanuts so all income is re-invested to keep hisbusiness running, any additional 'cash in hand' often gets used to keep up his own repayments on his own finaces. Even though we are married we keep our finaces separated these past few years as I cannot rely on him to stay out of debt, I am trying to improve our debt / credit score so separating our accounts and income was first step!

Only I am on Incapacity Benefit. I have AS but was previously also Self Employed. Although I am signed off sick it doesnt mean I spend all day every day at home indoors! AS is a progressive condition, pain management has good and bad days and flare ups in between. I still feel I need contents insurance not just for the potential burglary but miss-haps and unforseen floods caused by faulty equipment etc. I said we dont go out very often, I meant for paid entertainment, not full stop.

I have looked for work, either my qualifications are ourdated or it would take too long to re-train (and I would lose benefits so would put us both in even worse position). If I could manage to go out to work part or full time beleive me I would!

Mobiles - I have considered this. My husband already has a contract mobile but I switched mine a few years ago back to Pay and Go as I hardly ever use it. Mainly text anyway. I also find people are more reluctant to call mobiles I know I am.


Sky - I am being stubbourn about this its less costly than many hobbies and addictions £30 x 2 people is £15 a month or 7.50 a week (£3.75 each a week) less than a night out for 7 days viewing.


Will try and fathom out the details of the credit cards.

Many thanks I am listening to advice and looking at other boards to find more helpful hints.

Although I'm aware you're only here for help, I really must stress that breaking the law will get you nowhere - you're fraudulently claiming benefits if your husband does cash in hand jobs and this will put you right in the sh!te if you get found out.

Also, if your husband works self employed but doesn't earn anything, why doesn't he get a job? Working full time even on minimum wage would earn him over £13k. Most supermarkets pay well over MW anyway so it gets even better than this.

If I have clients (I'm an accountant) who earn less than £15k profit in a year, I generally advise they get a job. If you look at it from HMRC's POV (in your case), your husband doesn't earn anything and therefore doesn't pay any tax. They're more likely to investigate someone like this and therefore getting back to the cash in hand point.

I'll stress again that my points may be hard but are meant with the best of intentions!

Timmne

GhostHunter wrote: »

Sky - I am being stubbourn about this its less costly than many hobbies and addictions £30 x 2 people is £15 a month or 7.50 a week (£3.75 each a week) less than a night out for 7 days viewing.

But if you can't afford it, you can't afford it! This is the same reason I don't keep going on holidays - no matter how much joy they bring me, I can't afford it so don't do it....

TotallyBroke

I can understand that you want to keep finances seperate. Although this is not giving us a true picture. You yourself are not entitled to WTC your self employed husband is to put towards his debt. The rent and sky etc should be down as half amounts not just as yours.
Maybe you should do another SOA with a column for you and a column for OH and all debts and incomings. Then we maybe help you both. Before the trouble really hits the fan.

GhostHunter_3

TotallyBroke wrote: »

Looking back over your SOA and you have made a mistake about your council tax. You say you get a monthly benefit of £384.32 and you pay £64 on top. That would make the council tax for your property £448.32 per month!!!
Also what size property are you renting for £500 per month. Could you not downsize to a one or two bedroom property.

Hi

Thanks for pointing this out (appologies)

Council tax is £1,252.72p for the year (1Apr 08 - 31 March 09). Band C.

Looking at my last Council Tax bill I will copy what it says:

1 April 08 - 31 Mar 09 charges for period £1,252.72 BAND C.
Less benefit -£678.31
Less payments received as at date of issue (21may08) -62.41

Total amount payable by me - £512.00

A 1st instalment of £64. is due on 1/6/08 followed by 6 subsequent instalments of £64. each month and a fiunal instalment of £64. due on 1/1/09.

We live in a very small 2 bedroom bungalow. We are very fortunate to be allowed to rent from Family (my mother in law) which is all above board and council are aware of (we had to fight to get them to allow this relation to landlord thing). Just because they are family doesnt mean we dont have to pay rent after all they have to cover the buy to let mortgage! We previously lived for 2 years in a caravan with no double glazing or central heating as we were in a worse situation finacially then than we are now hard to beleive I know but we have had our share of struggles and.

Downsizing maybe an option I agree but we would find it hard to get anything other than a studio bedsit for the same amount in our area. We are very fortunate and appreciative of family help and they were very lucky to buy this bungalow 2 years ago at such a good deal.


Hope this answers some more questions. Many thanks for helping.

TotallyBroke

First things first then. Ask them to spread the council tax over 12months instead of the 10months. Also check water bill is over 12months and not 10. They too sometimes do bills over 10months.
I would also consider redoing your SOA. Is the rent an average price compared to other properties in the area. Family is family but some have been known to make off the other.

GhostHunter_3

Timmne wrote: »

Although I'm aware you're only here for help, I really must stress that breaking the law will get you nowhere - you're fraudulently claiming benefits if your husband does cash in hand jobs and this will put you right in the sh!te if you get found out.

Also, if your husband works self employed but doesn't earn anything, why doesn't he get a job? Working full time even on minimum wage would earn him over £13k. Most supermarkets pay well over MW anyway so it gets even better than this.

If I have clients (I'm an accountant) who earn less than £15k profit in a year, I generally advise they get a job. If you look at it from HMRC's POV (in your case), your husband doesn't earn anything and therefore doesn't pay any tax. They're more likely to investigate someone like this and therefore getting back to the cash in hand point.

I'll stress again that my points may be hard but are meant with the best of intentions!

Hi I totally agree with you to the point that he should get a job if not at least part time to be done in addition to his self employment. My initial reaction to your comment was 'here we go again' I have tried talking to him but it falls on deaf ears, no one can alter his blinkered approach. This is why I am struggling and have to sort things out alone for the past 8 years. I am not a lay about even though I have AS and am on incapacity benefit. If I could work to improve opur finacial mess I would. I have looked for jobs in the past but as I have said before I am either now out dated in qualifications (life experience doesnt account for much these days at interviews) or it would take me too long to retrain and any help we do get at the moment would stop anyway so we would encounter more issues, no where to live etc.

The Working Tax Credits are his he gets them paid to me. He is entitled to them by law. We are honest with all we do and declare so we are not committing fraud as far as we know. Beleive me that is the last thing we want to do in our position isnt it?

I didnt say my husband didnt earn anything I said he works for peanuts. The occasional cash in hand job is used, there are many people who do this I am sure, we dont turn a blind eye either. These 'tips' mean its not another payment on a credit card.

He has an accountant who does his books, tax returns etc, who he pays. He has a bank account for the business, admittedly its not a 'business banking account' but a 'joint' bank account for genuine reasons as advised by the bank themselves. I am only a partner in the business, now and always was unpaid. Remain as business partner for partnership reasons as advised by his accountant. Dont want to be just am.

If I offend you by my way of thinking or living I appologise. I am just trying to improve my future and not become an Ostrich or another homeless statistic. I only ask for help and take note of the advice and put it into our situation if practical to do so and make use of it by changing.

I realise I appear to be making excuses for every helpful remark its not my intention to ignore good advice I am merely putting you in perspective of our current circumstances, a snapshot of the way I have to live.

Many thanks.

lynzpower

when you say you cannot retrain, or it would take too long what do you mean? What were you doing before you got sick? I wonder whether you could take work in freelance, maybe typing? Or childcare? What about ironing or dog walking?

Could you temp? Only my freind has a very painful condition as well, and some weeks shes totally fine, at that point she goes out to work. When she isnt well, she can get benefits, she has an arrangement with the BA. I suggest you speak with an incapcity advisor, they might be able to suggest a scheme to help you get work that you can handle, and not work when you are too poorly x

Timmne

Believe me I'm not trying to make you feel bad about anything - you wouldn't be on here unless you were serious!

I would never call anyone on IB a layabout - the system's there to support you and you're not a bad person for claiming it!

Your phrase 'cash in hand' is the most heinous swear word someone like me in the regulated finance industry can hear! Its meaning is that someone is being paid for something and because it's in cash, they don't declare it because it's not traceable. Perhaps I misunderstood you but my thought was that your husband does these outside his normal business accounts - if this is the case, he needs to change his practices ASAP before he gets in trouble!

I'm hoping your accountant knows what he/she is doing as with you being a partner, you will be able to take a share of the profits and this could affect your benefits - just checking you know the score, sorry to worry you!

Anyway I'm going to step away from this thread (!) as my advice has been given

Good luck!