Incapacity benefit, declaring income from an art sale...need help

Clumpygreen_2

Hello

Im currently receiving Incapacity Benefit for a long illness i was struck down with several years ago. Prior to this i was working as a designer at a greeting card company. The company have recently been in touch and have said they would like to purchase three of my old paintings to put on greeting cards for one of there new collections. They have offered a flat fee for the license to sell world wide etc etc.

It is my understanding that i cannot sell the artworks as it would be classed as "work"...even though the designing was done years ago ( i dont know how anyone could ever prove when i piece of artwork done)....then i got to thinking how do people go about this on ebay? Im sure people on incap must sell things on there too, so are they braking the rules also?

I hope someone could give me some advise, as i dont want to say no to the company when i could actually sell to them

Kindest regards

dmg24

Call the DWP, tell them exactly what you have told us, and they will decide whether the money is to be treated as income or capital. If the former, they will also decide what period to apply the income to.

dseventy

ignore sorry

Clumpygreen_2

Thank you!
Ill do that tomorrow and see what they say. I didnt say no to the company straight away as i thought id better check first. Would be shame not to sell them but fully understand that this could be seen as being "wrong"

clumpygreen

Just to report back. I called the DWP today. They told me that as i was not actually producing the greeting cards i am allowed to sell the artworks. It was explained that it would be counted as a private income from the sale and i would not need to notify them off it. I did ask if they would like to see any paper work or for me to write and declare it ( just wanted to cover my back ) and they said no, it was fine.

I do get housing benefit too, so will be calling the council next week to declare it too them and see if they will class it as income or capital and to see how they readjust my benefit to compensate

nell53

What a great result! I think you should be feeling really proud that they want to buy your artwork- I know I would if it was me. Just imagine the thrill of going into a shop and seeing your work and being able to say I did that!
I dabble in painting and would be blown away if someone wanted to buy mine for a greeting card- or anything else for that matter. Well done. Could be the start of something big?