ESA and Betting

anakaday

I started off with £500 with spread betting and won more than £2,800. It is possible I could win more. Do winnings count as income for ESA?

diolch

anakaday wrote: »

I started off with £500 with spread betting and won more than £2,800. It is possible I could win more. Do winnings count as income for ESA?

NO! They are exempt

allen35

anakaday wrote: »

I started off with £500 with spread betting and won more than £2,800. It is possible I could win more. Do winnings count as income for ESA?

Once your savings reach £6,000 if on income based ESA benefits will reduce by £1 per £250 over this.

Good luck.

BodyElectric

Quit while you're ahead. NOW.

rogerblack

BodyElectric wrote: »

Quit while you're ahead. NOW.

This, really this!

I would strongly advise using the 2.8K for stuff that will save you money in the future.
For example, a large 'A+' rated freezer, so you can bulk buy cheap offers.
Remove prepayment electricity meter, ...

Do a detailed budget, and work out what areas you can save in by spending money now.

anakaday

This is great news!

BodyElectric wrote: »

Quit while you're ahead. NOW.

I'm not going to quit!

I am trying to get around £5,000 for the tax man and this is the only way to do it. I have been following the UK and US index over the past month. Sometimes I know what the mood is and can't lose. This is not like betting on the horses. You sometimes have more than a 90% chance of winning if you know what you are doing and are patient and you double your money for each point the market changes in your favour.

if you bet £1 per point and the market fluctuates between 6020 and 6060 and you bet somewhere in between to go up or down 10 points, you win £10 each time. The market goes up and down so win whatever happens. It doesn't always work like this but I wait until I know it's going to do that and win more often than not.

McKneff

Famous last words 'You cant lose'

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

dealer_wins

Over-confidence is a classic sign of a gambler whos going go bust!!!

System

nice to see money being wasted :mad: there are people in genuine need having to fight tooth and nail to get awarded ESA yet somehow you can afford to fritter it away lining the pockets of the betting companies?

That said i shouldn't be too harsh, most gamblers i've encountered have MH problems its rife amongst them. I hate to see people not getting the help they desperatly need to overcome their addictions.

Russe11

rogerblack wrote: »

This, really this!

I would strongly advise using the 2.8K for stuff that will save you money in the future.
For example, a large 'A+' rated freezer, so you can bulk buy cheap offers.
Remove prepayment electricity meter, ...

Do a detailed budget, and work out what areas you can save in by spending money now.

Or just buy items it when you need then and save on the cost of the freezer and the running costs.

Derivative

Spread betting, while perhaps 'safer' than other forms of betting, is still significantly risky.

I don't have an example for the equity markets as I don't follow them as much. But take a look at the blue line, Feb 24 on this chart. There are much worse examples even in Q1 2011, I don't feel like trawling through all the charts.



That is nearly a 1% drop, instantly.

You can also look a bit further back to the May Flash Crash.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Flash_Crash

In both cases, if you actually owned stocks you can just wait for a recovery (if you believe in it). If you're spread betting, your account balance may go negative. Now what? You have nothing to bet. The dealer will close your position as they don't want to see you go negative and run off into the distance.

I don't see a problem with spread betting itself but please make sure it's with money you can afford to lose.