Self employed and getting no help

robbybobson

Hi all,

Forum newbie here.

Just wanted to see if anyone else is in the same situation.

I worked in architecture for the last 15 years since I left school and lost my job along last January. Architecture was hit very very badly by the recession. There are no jobs. I went on jobseekers for a little while and was told by them "we looked for architectural work, there is none" Applied for some other semi related jobs such as kitchen designer at B and Q and got nowhere.

So started my own little business doing planning drawings etc. As I was self employed it soon became evident that no more jobseekers was allowed. Soon followed by my council tax benefit.

My wife is in exactly the same situation. The pair of us have brought in about £3500 in 6 months and we are told we are entitled to no benefits at all. We are both working full time to get our businesses off the ground. I have actually been working 6 days a week for the last few weeks.

Is it correct that there is no help at all for the likes of me. I should add that we have no cashcows, err sorry I meant children.

I just keep hearing people complain about no child benefits because they "only" earn £50k a year. The maths does not add up for me. How expensive is having a child exactly?

May I add that dealing with the benefits system when self employed is a full time job in itself. I have a special prize for the first letter I get from the council/hmrc that can spell "architectural"

Any other self employed low earners out there found any benefit to trying to work for yourself? I should have just stayed on jobseekers and had money thrown at me.
:mad:

bunny999

You might be entitled to working tax credits.

robbybobson

I thought that but its not looking likely. Also I think I have to wait a year so I can tell them what I earn in a year if you get my meaning.

Maybe I win when it comes to tax return time. Claim for everything I can.

andyandflo

robbybobson wrote: »

Hi all,

Forum newbie here.

Just wanted to see if anyone else is in the same situation.

I worked in architecture for the last 15 years since I left school and lost my job along last January. Architecture was hit very very badly by the recession. There are no jobs. I went on jobseekers for a little while and was told by them "we looked for architectural work, there is none" Applied for some other semi related jobs such as kitchen designer at B and Q and got nowhere.

So started my own little business doing planning drawings etc. As I was self employed it soon became evident that no more jobseekers was allowed. Soon followed by my council tax benefit.

My wife is in exactly the same situation. The pair of us have brought in about £3500 in 6 months and we are told we are entitled to no benefits at all. We are both working full time to get our businesses off the ground. I have actually been working 6 days a week for the last few weeks.

Is it correct that there is no help at all for the likes of me. I should add that we have no cashcows, err sorry I meant children.

I just keep hearing people complain about no child benefits because they "only" earn £50k a year. The maths does not add up for me. How expensive is having a child exactly?

May I add that dealing with the benefits system when self employed is a full time job in itself. I have a special prize for the first letter I get from the council/hmrc that can spell "architectural"

Any other self employed low earners out there found any benefit to trying to work for yourself? I should have just stayed on jobseekers and had money thrown at me.
:mad:

Hi, first of all I will assume that neither of you are disabled or ill and as you say, you have no children and are over 25.
Does the £3500 represent your gross earnings, or net profit after allowable deductions for running the business?
You say you are working full time - have you done that since the start - 30hrs pw +?

You have two options
Claim JSA (IB) as a couple - £102.75 and work for less than 16 hrs pw earning no more than £10 net profit between you both. This will entitle you to CTB and if you have a mortgage - some of the interest on it or Housing Benefit if you rent. If you have savings that may affect how much you get. If your net income exceeds £10 pw than the JSA will be reduced by the excess over £10. This is done by some people that start off a new business as they do not expect to make much if any net profit in the first year and keep their hours down just to get established.

OR

Claim WTC if you go over the 30hrs pw. You will declare your income as being the net profit again. WTC could be up to approx £2000 for the rest of this year and up to £4000 for next year. That does depend on the level of your net income.

andyandflo

robbybobson wrote: »

I thought that but its not looking likely. Also I think I have to wait a year so I can tell them what I earn in a year if you get my meaning.

Maybe I win when it comes to tax return time. Claim for everything I can.

You can put a claim in now for WTC, and estimate what your net profit will be for this year - year ending 5th April 2011. You won't get it if you don't claim it!!

Hammyman

robbybobson wrote: »

I thought that but its not looking likely. Also I think I have to wait a year so I can tell them what I earn in a year if you get my meaning.

Maybe I win when it comes to tax return time. Claim for everything I can.

Err, no. Apply for Working Tax Credits. Give them an estimated income for the current trading year. When I started S/E it was 3 months into the tax year and they just asked me for an estimated figure and then the actual one was provided in the renewal for the following year.

AnxiousMum

robbybobson wrote: »

I should add that we have no cashcows, err sorry I meant children.

:mad:

As a mother of five, who I don't see as cash cows, I have worked to provide for them all their lives - but take your comment above as a complete insult - therefore, no advice etc. from me!

Maybe you should've taken out self employment insurance when you decided to take the risk of going self employed.

andyandflo

AnxiousMum wrote: »

As a mother of five, who I don't see as cash cows, I have worked to provide for them all their lives - but take your comment above as a complete insult - therefore, no advice etc. from me!

Maybe you should've taken out self employment insurance when you decided to take the risk of going self employed.

And what use is that piece of advice to a family trying to get by?

AnxiousMum

andyandflo wrote: »

And what use is that piece of advice to a family trying to get by?

and this post from you is helpful how? I was simply pointing out to the poster that they don't need to insult a whole group of people who have children - we do not consider our children as cash cows, they are our family.

robbybobson

Sorry about the cashcow comment. I was just sick of hearing people on a measly £50k income whinging about losing child tax credit. I mean absolutely no offence to any hard working people out there.

robbybobson

I did not see it as a risk going self employed. It was either that or stay on job seekers. Job seekers would not even cover my mortgage (which is by no means huge)

Self employment was simply last roll of the dice.

Thanks for the advice guys n gals.

Will look into the working tax credit. Thought the job centre might have told us about that but they never suggested it.