Self employed benefit help

REMUS

Hi,

Have been employed all my working life and have paid NI for 28 yrs, however I have been self employed for the past 3 years (after being made redundant no big payout unfortunately) for the last 5 months i have had no work, when I tried to claim job seekers allowance I was refused,I was told i hadn't paid enough NI, as they only checked back 2 tax years; is this right? I don't earn a fortune being self employed and have never claimed before.

Any advise would be helpful.

HappyMJ

Still working? Try Working Tax Credits. Not working at all. As in closed the business down completely then you can claim Income based JSA

Hammyman

REMUS wrote: »

Hi,

Have been employed all my working life and have paid NI for 28 yrs, however I have been self employed for the past 3 years (after being made redundant no big payout unfortunately) for the last 5 months i have had no work, when I tried to claim job seekers allowance I was refused,I was told i hadn't paid enough NI, as they only checked back 2 tax years; is this right? I don't earn a fortune being self employed and have never claimed before.

Any advise would be helpful.

Yes it is correct - entitlement is based on the previous two tax years. You have paid NI as self employed but it is Class 2 and Class 4 which only count towards contributions based health related benefits such as ESA. Class 1 NI is what counts towards contributions based benefits and you've not paid any. I suspect your OH is working? Thats why you wouldn't get income based JSA.