JSA and being self employed....

aj2703

Hi my friend is self employed and for years now the work has been on and off. Recently what with the downturn etc his work situation has become dire to say the least. He isn't making full mortgage payments etc and is getting the usual 20 calls a day:rolleyes:.

Now having spoken to him, he said he contacted the JC awhile back and they said he wasn't entitled to make a claim as his NI contribuions being self employed wern't on the necessary level.?. Cat 1 and he was paying Cat 2..? (or something like that.). To be honest i am not even sure if he has been making the lower NI payments.

What is he entitled to.? His wife works part time and takes home roughly £550 a month so i am led to believe.

Can he put in any sort of a claim, even say if he has paid NO NI contributions while being self employed which is what i am thinking has happened espically over the last year or so.

olly300

The problem is his wife's earnings otherwise he would be applicable for income based JSA. Both his and her earnings are calculated together as they are a couple.

I suggest you check the site entitledto.co.uk and see if they are entitled to anything. I put some figures in and it says they are entitled to nothing.

aj2703

olly300 wrote: »

The problem is his wife's earnings otherwise he would be applicable for income based JSA. Both his and her earnings are calculated together as they are a couple.

I suggest you check the site entitledto.co.uk and see if they are entitled to anything. I put some figures in and it says they are entitled to nothing.

Really..? I would have thought he would be entitled to clam some form of benefit...

Welshwoofs

If they have children there may be some child-related benefit they can claim. Unfortunately self-employed people fall down the cracks in the benefits system because they pay Class 2 NI as standard. If your friend was single he'd get income based JSA, but as soon as a working spouse/partner comes into the equation I'm afraid the self-employed person gets nothing in way the way of benefits.

What is truly mental is that someone can leave school, not do a stitch of work in their lives and claim benefits, but if one shows a bit of enterprise and goes self-employed they get bent over and royally screwed the moment they need help.

Welcome to Labour's Britain - tailored to aid the indolent ;-)

aj2703

Welshwoofs wrote: »

If they have children there may be some child-related benefit they can claim. Unfortunately self-employed people fall down the cracks in the benefits system because they pay Class 2 NI as standard. If your friend was single he'd get income based JSA, but as soon as a working spouse/partner comes into the equation I'm afraid the self-employed person gets nothing in way the way of benefits.

What is truly mental is that someone can leave school, not do a stitch of work in their lives and claim benefits, but if one shows a bit of enterprise and goes self-employed they get bent over and royally screwed the moment they need help.

Welcome to Labour's Britain - tailored to aid the indolent ;-)

Thanks for the info welsh, i feel sorry for him if that's the case as he is finding it really hard.

DX2

Do they get working tax credits and child tax credits?

aj2703

DX2 wrote: »

Do they get working tax credits and child tax credits?

Hmmm they do but apparently were overpaid, the inn's and out's of that i don't know but they do get it but don't receive anything as they are paying it back.

Bogof_Babe

Welshwoofs wrote: »

What is truly mental is that someone can leave school, not do a stitch of work in their lives and claim benefits, but if one shows a bit of enterprise and goes self-employed they get bent over and royally screwed the moment they need help.

Welcome to Labour's Britain - tailored to aid the indolent ;-)

Just done a bit of searching on this, and if I am making sense of it it appears that Class 2 NI conts. is £2.30 per week, while Class 1 is 11% of salary above "primary threshhold", whatever that is. Whatever it is, it is unlikely to be anywhere near as low as £2.30.

Bogof_Babe

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

This is what I was referring to.

And... eek @ your username! I've just bought some red shoes! :rotfl:

Edit: Just noticed, primary threshhold is £105, so about 17 hours NMW work, so anyone working full time would pay 11% on the remainder over the £105. About £12 I'd assume. Obviously the higher the earnings the more you pay.

Oops, edit again: Just realised I'm looking at the column with last year's figures. Not so much different this year though. I'm tired, time for bed....