Self employment?

PiscesIsis

Hi,

I'm in a pretty confused place right now, so I'm sorry if this post is messy and hard to understand, Though obviously i'll try my best to make sense.

I'm not sure which forum to post this on, so if it's in the wrong place, can someone please point me in the right direction? thank you

I'm a single mum with three kids, the eldest is 19 and doing an apprenticeship, the other two are in high school. I've been on jobseekers for the past year but signed off today as I start my college course next week and am no longer entitled to benefit. I do get benefits for the children which will add up to about £115 a week, plus £20 board from my eldest. This is obviously not enough for a family of 4 to live on, not to mention my travel and material costs for college.

I've tried since January to find work that will fit in with my college hours, but have only just managed to get a few odd shifts at a local pub. I need 16hrs a week to qualify for working tax credits.

Today however I have received some commissions for paintings and it got me to thinking that maybe I should declare myself as a self-employed artist and try to work in the 16 hours around college. The problem is, i have no guarantee that more work will come once I've finished these few. does it matter if I earn or not whilst self employed? would I still be able to claim WTC if I spent those 16 hrs a week doing promotion work or marketing etc?

Thanks, I hope that all makes sense.

DCFC79

Theres employers looking for xmas staff or there is round me, for example sainsburys, tesco, asda, just an idea mind, it would only be for xmas

but if you want sell paintings then give it a shot

Hammyman

PiscesIsis wrote: »

Today however I have received some commissions for paintings and it got me to thinking that maybe I should declare myself as a self-employed artist and try to work in the 16 hours around college. The problem is, i have no guarantee that more work will come once I've finished these few. does it matter if I earn or not whilst self employed? would I still be able to claim WTC if I spent those 16 hrs a week doing promotion work or marketing etc?

Thanks, I hope that all makes sense.

No it doesn't matter if you make a profit although you may find yourself needing to prove you're doing what you claim at some point.
Yes, promotion and marketing is work as is running around going to stationers etc.

[Deleted User]

In your shoes I'd definitely be looking at Xmas shop work, in the short term, whilst you explore the self employment option.

To me, your first step in the exploration needs to be to find out what you need to do to fuflil the self-employment option - and whether it's actually possible to use that for tax credits (i.e. how you will prove that you're working 16 hours a week - easy with an employer; harder when you're self employed ?)

If that's possible, then there are loads of sites on the internet giving advice to artists (of all kinds) about making money out of their skills, so I'd definitely do that next - do a brainstorm on ALL the ways you could make money out of it.

(I know someone who's doing an Art course and she makes money by taking a very commercial attitude by doing specific works for certain times of the year, e.g. Xmas, Mother's Day, Birthdays. She's recently done a portrait of a young graduate from a photo ! Animals are always popular. She sells them through local retail outlets; she's now looking at setting up her own website).

You could do more commercial stuff to bring money in until your commissions really take off ?

Whatever you do, remember to keep photos and add to your portfolio to show future clients.

Good Luck !