JSA (IB) refused - Rental income too much, yet no money to live on! Advice welcomed.

KoalaElf

I have recently put in a claim for jobseekers allowance since I am currently looking for work, but have been told I do not qualify for the reasons listed below.

I have tenants living in my house to help cover the cost of my mortgage interest, although this does not cover my mortgage interest and the bills that are included in the rent.

So... to the DWP it looks as though I have an income of £1120 p/m when in fact I am making a loss of £43p/m.

Hence I have nothing to live on. No money to eat. Nothing.

And yet, although I pay tax as a self-emplyed person, apparently the DWP do not class me as a sole trader. Thus, despite the fact that I keep my accounts separate and it is blatantly obvious I have no cash flow or profit, they are unable to accept the fact that my expenses are deductible from my income.

I have no job, so I am not an "employed earner" and it would seem I am not classed as being in remunerative work. I do not have enough NI contributions to classify for JSA (cont) since I have only just left university & have so far only had part-time jobs.

Can anyone help me see some light at the end of the tunnel? I have pored over the DWP decision makers guidelines [1000s of pages] to no avail, and it seems I fall down the cracks in between their strict rules.


The only options I seem to have involve :

Reducing my income via throwing my tenants out which would be illegal since they have 12 month contracts. I would also get into arrears on my mortgage interest payments.

Selling my house, which is next to impossible in the current climate and if I *did* find a buyer, I would lose nearly all of my deposit due to depreciation.


I am at my wits end really. I came out of university ambitious and raring to go, and now one of the major successes I have had [buying, restoring and renting out my own house] is looking like will be taken away from me. I can't see any way out of this, and feel like it is the start of a horrendous downward spiral of debt and depression... my confidence has already taken a huge blow in that no one seems to want to employ me or help find a way out of this, despite me putting every effort into improving my situation.

moggylover

I don't have any really helpful information for you - but feel sure that someone will be along soon that does. Just wanted to offer sympathy for the rotten situation (which I fear many will be finding themselves in) and hope that you can find some sort of work (even shelf-filling might help over the Christmas period) in the very near future to stay afloat.

I don't think there will be any benefits that you will be able to claim, but there are probably things that you could cut down on (and I do know that no-one likes to hear that) if you posted your statement of affairs on the moneysaving board.

I hope things go better for you soon.

briona

Ok, first things first. As I'm sure you're aware, finding employment would greatly help your situation (stating the obvious, I know!). Can I ask what you graduated in? Knowing what you graduated in will enable posters to make appropriate suggestions as to what you can do, and where you might find work.

The other big question is whether you would be willing to take any kind of job? I say this to a lot of posters, but places like Starbucks who are seemingly unaffected by the recession, are always looking for staff. The pay's not great (probably little more than minimum wage – £5.73 p/h if you're aged 22+) but it's better than nothing at all.

For a short-term fix, have you got anything you could sell (books, DVDs, CDs etc) on Amazon or eBay? Also, could you utilise any skills you have to make money, e.g., designing invites for a family member's birthday party, fixing people's computers, that sort of thing? Or how about babysitting, or car washing (undercut the cost of the local car wash and you'll be quids in!), dog-walking, leaf-raking... You won't get rich doing it, but every little helps!

I've taken your post to read that you are a live-in landlord. So, in the absence of being able to get a job, do you have the option of temporarily moving home and filling your place in the house with another tenant? Leaving aside your food and day-to-day expenses, you currently have a £43 shortfall. The rent from this extra tenant would undoubtedly cover that, and you would have some extra to enable you to eat, and possibly make a contribution to whoever you were staying with.

Briona

Conor_3

So you went to claim JSA when you should be claiming working tax credit and/or income support.

Kavanne

Conor wrote: »

So you went to claim JSA when you should be claiming working tax credit and/or income support.

OP says they have just come out of university so they may be under 25?

briona

Conor wrote: »

So you went to claim JSA when you should be claiming working tax credit and/or income support.

Oh look it's Conor with yet another blunt and ill-thought out response! :mad:

The OP appears to be a recent graduate who is unemployed. His (?) only "income" comes from his tenants, but all of this is going straight out to service the mortgage and the bills, and even then he's left with a shortfall. If he's not classed as employed, how would he be able to claim working tax credits? And what would they be topping up? His non-existent income?! Being as blunt as you usually are, how about READING the post before responding! :rolleyes:

KimYeovil

So it's your tenants and taxpayers who should buy your house for you plus give you £45 per week to live on. Your contribution to this will be?

Try working.

briona

KoalaElf wrote: »

And yet, although I pay tax as a self-emplyed person, apparently the DWP do not class me as a sole trader. Thus, despite the fact that I keep my accounts separate and it is blatantly obvious I have no cash flow or profit, they are unable to accept the fact that my expenses are deductible from my income.

KimYeovil wrote: »

So it's your tenants and taxpayers who should buy your house for you plus give you £45 per week to live on. Your contribution to this will be?

Try working.

Try READING! :rolleyes:

Note from the OP's post that they PAY TAX on their rental income (as indeed they should do!) and that they are currently looking for work but have not yet had any success.

KimYeovil

I can read. Can the OP do elementary arithmetic?

If you choose to partly live off your tenants' rent then you know from the outset you have to knuckle down and take whatever work is going if the rent will not be high enough. You know you have no leeway for twiddling thumbs in self pity. The OP should not expect to be provided with a free home (and a free business) by other taxpayers.

briona

KimYeovil wrote: »

I can read. Can the OP do elementary arithmetic?

If you choose to partly live off your tenants' rent then you know from the outset you have to knuckle down and take whatever work is going if the rent will not be high enough. You know you have no leeway for twiddling thumbs in self pity. The OP should not expect to be provided with a free home (and a free business) by other taxpayers.

Unlike you, I assumed, (possibly incorrectly) that the OP's circumstances have recently changed, as could happen to anyone, especially in the current economic climate. Many people can afford their lifestyle based on the income they currently have; a good percentage of those could not if that income suddenly decreased or disappeared...

Oldernotwiser

I think that the OP needs to forget about being self employed as it's obviouslynot providing any income; getting a job of some sort seems the only way forward.