Housing benefit and self employment

henrysmum01

Hi , im new here and was after some advice please.

Recently moved, so changed my hb and ct benefit. Advised before moved. It took council 8 weeks to action it and in the meantime the suspended my benefit. That has now been sorted, but a few months ago I registered as self employed, notified inland revenue, hb and ct and tax credits. All ok.

My question is my income remains the same every month, ( i only have one customer at the moment) but my expenditure changes monthly due to advertising etc. Im not worried about being under paid, but dont want to get an over payment.

When i advised my council about my self employment, i was advised in peson not to declare it until i had 6 months worth of accounts, however i felt that this was dishonest and declared straight away.

I now want to know how often i should show them my accounts. I was thinking every 3 months, just my invoices and expenses. But im worried they will suspend payment every time i do and i cannot support my children etc if they do that.

I have asked the question at the council but no one has given me an answer. I get if we need any further info we will write to you and ask.

Is this the best way of going about it, or shall i bite the bullet and submit my accounts 3 monthly. I have used the on line calculator to see if im am being over paid, but depending on each month ( as expenses change) some months Im overpaid by £10 and others underpaid by £20.

Any advice please!

DX2

I found this, if it's any help to you.

What extra information will I need to provide?

If you have been working as a self-employed person
for twelve complete calendar months or more,
please provide details of your income and expenses
for your last financial year.

If you have been working as a self-employed person
for less than one financial year, please provide
details of your income and expenses for as many
complete calendar months as you can.

If you have been working as a self-employed person
for less than one month please provide details of
your estimated income and expenses for the first
three months of trading. This process of providing
estimated income and expenses will be repeated
until a year is reached.

The calculation of Housing Benefit and Council Tax
Benefit can be complex and we might need to ask
you to provide extra information to allow us to
calculate your claim correctly. If we do need to ask
you for more information it will take us longer to award your benefit.

http://www.winchester.gov.uk/Documents/Benefits/SelfEmployForm.pdf

henrysmum01

Thank you, thats really helpful. My council doesnt seem to have anything like that on their website. Im going to bite the bullet and take in my 3 months worth of accounts. They will show no difference in what i estimated, only that i had more expenses than i anticipated, but the income has remained consistant.