Is there any help for us?

shomk

My husband is self employed but has only made about £2000-£3000 in the last year. I earn £23000 and we have been living on this but now we are running dry.

We have a large mortgage and have had to borrow from parents to help pay this and quite a bit of debt. We also have to use our credit cards and we dont spend on what we dont need.

I have looked up tax credits but it seems that we are not entitled to them. Is there anything we could be entitled to? At this rate we would be financially better off if my husband just gave up work and went on job seekers allowance or something but we want to build up his business for the future when the economy improves and we dont want to give up.

I dont know a lot about this. Has anyone got any suggestions?

dmg24

Do you have children?

shomk

No children - so no help there either!

dmg24

If your husband was been self employed for a few years he will not qualify for JSA.

You need to cut down on your outgoings. Two people should be able to live on £26,000 a year.

bubblegumcola

Could you possibly downsize from the house you are living in at the moment, you must be in quite a large house if you have a large mortgage? That would free up some cash to plough into your husband's business and help pay bills.

26k is an ok income for two people (obviously depends which part of the country you live in), my husband's income dropped last year from around 40k to 20k and we have three kids and a mortgage, not an enormous mortgage but its alot of money for us and we are on a fixed rate so alot higher than those on a variable rate at the mo. Luckily we get a decent amount of child tax credit which helps clothe and feed them. We've had to use every penny we had saved to help pay for bills, etc. The credit card is now taking a battering for major things that need repaired and we are hoping things will improve but you never know what is round the corner.

Is there any other way you could raise a few quid, sell some things in your local paper, have a car boot sale?? You'd be amazed what people will buy. Could your husband possibly get a part-time job to supplement his earnings or does he need to devote all of his time to the business? Or do you have any family you could get a loan from?

I can't think of any benefits you would be entitled to. If you had children you would get child tax credit and we aren't entitled to anything else apart from that with my husbands' current income. Are there any business advisors at the job centre who could help point you in the direction of any grants you could get possibly??

OrkneyStar

I really don't think there would be any benefits available unless one of you was ill/disabled.
Have you a spare room ? Could you rent it out ? Or downsize (as someone else suggested).
Sadly there are not benefits available simply because people have a large mortgage, although I understand that in some areas a large mortgage is needed simply to buy something small!
As for JSA, I don't think he would qualify for contribution based JSA if he has been self-employed, and he would not qualify for income-based JSA (or income support) due to your income.