Bank statements to OR monthly?

Ineedaname

Clothes are far cheaper to buy in a charity shop - no P&P for starters.

Having pots of money around the house isn't a great idea because you should declare any cash you have if sent an IPOQ. Otherwise everyone could do that and have several hundred 'hidden' in the house. If a lot of cash regularly gets withdrawn the OR could ask what it's being spent on and an officious one could ask for proof too.

Kepar - you're probably getting away with transferring money into your PayPal account because you don't have to submit regular statements to the OR so they don't know what you're doing. Again, I thik an OR would want to know what this money was being spent on. Craft item would probably be seen as a hobby unless it's part of a business.

MTDancer - an IPA is adjustable up and down throughout the 3 years. Try to negotiate with your OR regarding this and say as business is self employed there isn't always a surplus every month.

MTDancer

craft is for me - we all need a little something to occupy us, scrimp and save from other bits to afford it. Everyone does this or else for 3 years life would not be worth living

Ineedaname

I understand that, but if the OR repeatedly sees PayPal payments coming from your bank account they may start to question this and not like you spending money on a hobby when that's not an allowance in SOA. An officious OR could even say if you can afford that then you can afford less on your SOA and not buy the craft stuff = more surplus for the OR.

Just warning you it could turn messy as you have to submit monthly statements.

Do you not have a Hobby Crafts or some such nearby that you could buy from instead? You could then get away withdrawing 'pocket money' from the account each week for that spending. A small amount of cash regularly withdrawn is less likely to be questioned.

MTDancer

Thanks for the advice - trouble is live in a place where there is no craft shops for almost 100 miles which is why I have always bought from internet

MTDancer

debtinfo wrote: »

It's almost as if they would not trust you to save it up to the end of the year?:D

It is not standard procedure, presumably from reading your posts you have said something like "the income changes every month so much that we cant work out an average" to the OR and so the OR says "ok send me the statements every month and we will look at it every month"

The OR wants an amount every month even though we do not always earn enough to live on every month. Went almost all last year with no earnings - hence bankruptcy!

Ineedaname

MTDancer wrote: »

Thanks for the advice - trouble is live in a place where there is no craft shops for almost 100 miles which is why I have always bought from internet

I understand the reasoning, just wanted you to be aware that depending on how closely your OR scrutinises your statements you may be called to justify the spending.

If you have such a minimum income can you really afford a hobby with costs anyway though? What about posting on Freecycle that you would like craft items to play with?

dojoman

In one of your other posts you ask about the OR doing a deal as your husband has got a new job, but in this post you say you hardly have anything to live on some months. Has your husbands new job not materialised?

MTDancer

Dojoman, new job is actually self employed and commission is variable. Think we were naive with amount he thought he might earn, though it has potential over time

dojoman

MTDancer wrote: »

Dojoman, new job is actually self employed and commission is variable. Think we were naive with amount he thought he might earn, though it has potential over time

Ok thanks for that, I was just getting a little confused, must be my age:o