Self Employed - Any Assistance

eaststand

hi ive been offically registered as self employed for @6 months in a motor industry related job (stupid decision and a long story!)and unfortunately i just can make enough income to pay my bills, in fact i have virtually nothing coming in to pay any of my monthly bills this mont inc the mortgage and im already behind.Ive not paid any tax since registering as S/Employed and i dont know what i can claim for from the state or whether i should just declare myself as unemployed and register for work.If so what would i be entitled to i am married with 2 teenage daighters one in college one in f/t work.My wife is registered disabled.
Please some one help with advice as im really struggling and will run out of money very soon.i have no one to borrow from and a poor credit record so i cant even temporarily use credit to assist me through these dififcult times.

delbert30

have a look at working tax credits firsty, if you have earned under 13k in the last tax year april 07 -08 you are eligiable for goverment help of up to 60 quid a week, if the business is not working cut you losses and sign on, however as you have not paid any tax contributions for the last 6 months this might affect it a bit but they will look at your past few years of work.
If you register with the job centre as out of work you can get your council tax reduced by 100%, also you can get crises loans to help you through a tough time and also the goverment have now said that after 13wks of being unemployed they will also pay the intrest only on your mortgage, but every penny helps, but the intrest is most of you payment anyways.

Also it may be worth while speaking to your mortgage provider and see if you can take a payment holiday whilst you sort your finances out (some do offer this) or if not try and convert your mortgage over to an intrest only mortgage, but this will extent the life of you mortgage, but if you do that please rember to switch it back to a repayment as soon as poss so that you dont get a huge bill for the outstanding balance at the end of the mortgage period, or prehap extent your mortgage to a longer amount of years to lower payments.

not an expert but i am newly self employed and have been looking into the above.

hope this helps a bit

ragz_2

HI there, hope you have cheered up a little since posting, I jsut wanted to say that you are not the only one. My partner started as SE as a gardener in May last year (not through choice, really, just needed to work!) and in the first month he earned about £150! It took quite a few months to build up his business but we did survive (though I have to say my OD was very helpful).
We managed to claim housing benefit for our rent (I know you are on a mortgage but I belive it's possible to get help for that), CTC (you may be able to claim this for the daughter who is in Full time education) and WTC and CTB and those alone came to enough to cover all our outgoings apart from food and petrol, which we managed to earn enuogh to cover.
You can still claim beneftis and tax credits when SE, it's just a lot more complicated but if you are eligible please do (you may also get the disability part of tax credits too?)
If your business really won't have a future then swallow your pride and drop it but do remember that most make a loss in the first year and you are only 6 months in.
I really hope it all works out for you.
Best of luck