Self employed, earning less than minimum wage

sammiew

My husband is self employed, he works roughly 30 hours per week and earns £80-ish on a good week :eek: I am disabled and stay home to look after our young child however my husband often has to be home to to support me, he works around our family's needs rather than us been on full benefits. We do get full housing and council tax benefit due to his low wage but a friend said we could get working tax, is this correct? Is there going to be a problem because he works many hours for little pay? Unfortunately he can't get a normal full time job due to the needs of our family and my disability but he is a very proud man and likes to work.

Could anyone help? If you do need more information please do ask. I have been a lurker for many years but never posted so please be gentle, MSE has helped us out of many rough points so thank you all.

MrsManda

How much he gets paid is irrelevant I think, WTC is dependent on how many hours you work.
There's a quick questionnaire on direct.gov.uk which will give you an idea of what tax credits you or your husband may be able to claim.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/TaxCreditsandChildBenefit/TaxCredits/Gettingstarted/whoqualifies/index.htm

What hours do you need to work to get Working Tax Credit? You don't have children

If you don’t have children, you need to work the following hours:

• if you are aged 25 or over, you need to do paid work of at least 30 hours a week
• if you have a disability and are 16 or over, you need to do paid work of at least 16 hours a week
• if you or your partner are aged 50 or over and are going back to work after being on out of work benefits, such as Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance, you need to do paid work of at least 16 hours a week

You have children

If you have children, you need to be aged 16 or over and do paid work of at least 16 hours a week to qualify.


If you're self-employed, paid work means any work you do for payment (or would expect to be paid) or profit.

Jowo_2

You can model your benefit entitlements on the Turn2us online benefit calculator.

Some levels of DLA mean the claimant is entitled to a carer who receives an allowance of approx £55 per week, though there are restrictions about the income/hours the carer can work and there could be an impact on other means tested benefits. I'm sure another member can come along with clearer rules around eligibility for Carers Allowance.

sammiew

Jowo wrote: »

You can model your benefit entitlements on the Turn2us online benefit calculator.

Some levels of DLA mean the claimant is entitled to a carer who receives an allowance of approx £55 per week, though there are restrictions about the income/hours the carer can work and there could be an impact on other means tested benefits. I'm sure another member can come along with clearer rules around eligibility for Carers Allowance.

I forgot to mention in my first post my husband is my carer and does get the allowance. Thank you for replying, I will have a look at that calculator now, it is all very confusing so I might have to get my husband to look through it all later on so he might be back on to ask more questions.

baza52

what kind of job only pays that?
How does he manage being your full time carer and working 30 hours?

Hammyman

sammiew wrote: »

My husband is self employed, he works roughly 30 hours per week and earns £80-ish on a good week :eek: I am disabled and stay home to look after our young child however my husband often has to be home to to support me, he works around our family's needs rather than us been on full benefits. We do get full housing and council tax benefit due to his low wage but a friend said we could get working tax, is this correct? Is there going to be a problem because he works many hours for little pay?

Not a problem. I made a trading loss on paper last year and hopefully if I do my books well enough, I'll make a couple of grand. The first year was on a turnover of just under £25k as there was only 6 months trading.

As MrsManda says, its dependant on hours. I doubt there's many in HMRC who are expecting every small business to make a profit this year.

Hammyman

baza52 wrote: »

what kind of job only pays that?
How does he manage being your full time carer and working 30 hours?

Any self employed person who is doing the books properly will make less than NMW on paper.

Fulltime care is 35hrs. He works 30, theres 144 in week and he'll be classed as caring whilst at home.

baza52

Hammyman wrote: »

Any self employed person who is doing the books properly will make less than NMW on paper.

Fulltime care is 35hrs. He works 30, theres 144 in week and he'll be classed as caring whilst at home.

Im aware of the regs just wondered how he managed.
I dont think your above quote is even remotely true tho.
Are you saying ALL self employed are making less than the minimum wage?
£2.66 an hour is hardly worth leaving the house for especially if he has to pop home when needed. perhaps its one of those ebay selling jobs that make no money but entitle you to tax credits that he has.....

wonder if the OP's hubby also realises that CA is taxable and if his earnings combined are high enough he will be liable to pay tax.

Hammyman

baza52 wrote: »

Im aware of the regs just wondered how he managed.
I dont think your above quote is even remotely true tho.
Are you saying ALL self employed are making less than the minimum wage?

No, I'm saying that ON PAPER they may be. On paper is not directly related to what you get in your pocket. For example, I go to a supplier to buy laptops. I claim £84 in mileage at HMRC rates of 40p per mile which gets deducted from my gross profits but I only spend £20 in diesel to do it. So on paper, if I make £100 profit on the laptops I bought and sold that week, I've only made £16 profit after deducting the mileage but I've actually ended up with £80 in my pocket because it only cost me £20 to do. Hence on paper I've made below NMW but in reality I've made above it.

£2.66 an hour is hardly worth leaving the house for especially if he has to pop home when needed. perhaps its one of those ebay selling jobs that make no money but entitle you to tax credits that he has.....

See above. Last year I was earning ON PAPER £0.00 per hour yet every month I put money I'd earned in my business into my personal account.

wonder if the OP's hubby also realises that CA is taxable and if his earnings combined are high enough he will be liable to pay tax.

There's sections on the self assessment form to complete in regards to benefits.

You may want to educate yourself about self employment and tax accounting before stating what is and what isn't remotely true.

baza52

Hammyman wrote: »

No, I'm saying that ON PAPER they may be. On paper is not directly related to what you get in your pocket. For example, I go to a supplier to buy laptops. I claim £84 in mileage at HMRC rates of 40p per mile which gets deducted from my gross profits but I only spend £20 in diesel to do it. So on paper, if I make £100 profit on the laptops I bought and sold that week, I've only made £16 profit after deducting the mileage but I've actually ended up with £80 in my pocket because it only cost me £20 to do. Hence on paper I've made below NMW but in reality I've made above it.


See above. Last year I was earning ON PAPER £0.00 per hour yet every month I put money I'd earned in my business into my personal account.

So your screwing the system?


There's sections on the self assessment form to complete in regards to benefits.

You may want to educate yourself about self employment and tax accounting before stating what is and what isn't remotely true.

you claim £84 to collect a few laptops????
You could have a pallet load of em delivered for less than that.


Ahh i get it. you earn more than you make out on paper so you can get more benefits....

how can you earn £0 on paper but bank money each money to your personal account.

CuppaGirl8z8

Do you live in London?