help JSA and commission based work

girl_in_need

hi all
I wonder if you can help me ? , I'm J.S.A at the moment , but I'm due to start work sometime next week , however the work is self employed , and I get paid on a commission basis , but will I be able to still continue with JSA , or will I have to sign off , if you can help that would be grate.

pipscot

girl_in_need wrote: »

hi all
I wonder if you can help me ? , I'm J.S.A at the moment , but I'm due to start work sometime next week , however the work is self employed , and I get paid on a commission basis , but will I be able to still continue with JSA , or will I have to sign off , if you can help that would be grate.

If you are working (and self-employed, commission based work does count as work) then i can't see why you would be entitled to JSA since JSA is for "unemployed" people. You may be entitled to working tax credits if your income is low but there are minimum working hours etc for tax credits.

patman99

The rules on JSA are that you can keep claiming, but you must work no more than 16 hours per week and everything you earn above £5 will be deducted from your benefits.
If you work more than 16 hours then you have to sign-off.

As you are S/E, make sure you pay Class 1 National Insurance Contributions NOT class 2. That way, if you have periods of no work, then you will be entitled to full benefits as you will have been paying full NIC's. This does mean you will be paying-out 11% of everything you earn above £139 p/w, as apposed to the token £2.40 p/w with NIC Class 2, but the extra protection is worth it.

pipscot

patman99 wrote: »

The rules on JSA are that you can keep claiming, but you must work no more than 16 hours per week and everything you earn above £5 will be deducted from your benefits.
If you work more than 16 hours then you have to sign-off.

As you are S/E, make sure you pay Class 1 National Insurance Contributions NOT class 2. That way, if you have periods of no work, then you will be entitled to full benefits as you will have been paying full NIC's. This does mean you will be paying-out 11% of everything you earn above £139 p/w, as apposed to the token £2.40 p/w with NIC Class 2, but the extra protection is worth it.

How can a self-employed person pay class 1 NIC?

patman99

The same way they pay Class 2. You just contact HMRC and they will send you the relevant info. I'm not S/E myself, but when I looked into it as a way of coming off JSA, my adviser told me to pay Class 1 as it gives me a fall-back should work dry-up.
An ex-workmate of mine also got told the same info when he went s/e, he is very glad he did as he had a 3 week period with no work so signed-back on and got full JSA.

pipscot

patman99 wrote: »

The same way they pay Class 2. You just contact HMRC and they will send you the relevant info. I'm not S/E myself, but when I looked into it as a way of coming off JSA, my adviser told me to pay Class 1 as it gives me a fall-back should work dry-up.
An ex-workmate of mine also got told the same info when he went s/e, he is very glad he did as he had a 3 week period with no work so signed-back on and got full JSA.

Class 1 NIC are for the employed and are deducted from employees wages by employers. As far as I know, the only way a person can pay Class 1 NIC directly to HMRC themselves is if they are an employee of an overseas company in which case the HMRC will allow you to set up a direct collection scheme.
Self employed people pay Class 2 and Class 4 contributions (unless they earn under the thresholds). They are not entitled to contributions based JSA but they are entitled to income based JSA. I can't see how your ex-workmate was paying Class 1 unless he was an employee?

girl_in_need

pipscot wrote: »

If you are working (and self-employed, commission based work does count as work) then i can't see why you would be entitled to JSA since JSA is for "unemployed" people. You may be entitled to working tax credits if your income is low but there are minimum working hours etc for tax credits.

hi , and thanks for your post .
yes I know JSA is for the unemployed people ( which I am at the mo)
but I'm not working over 16 hours and the pay is only commission
based ( ie if I don't make a sale i don;t get money , if I get a sale I get 2% of the vale of the sale) , but cos I'm not working over 16 hours a week , can I still keep my JSA ???, if you can help out with this that would be fab - thanks all

pipscot

girl_in_need wrote: »

hi , and thanks for your post .
yes I know JSA is for the unemployed people ( which I am at the mo)
but I'm not working over 16 hours and the pay is only commission
based ( ie if I don't make a sale i don;t get money , if I get a sale I get 2% of the vale of the sale) , but cos I'm not working over 16 hours a week , can I still keep my JSA ???, if you can help out with this that would be fab - thanks all

Hi girl in need
Patman99 has said that you can still be signed on as long as you don't go over the 16 hours and that anything you earn over £5 will be deducted from your JSA. Hope that helps:)

lynzpower

girl_in_need wrote: »

hi , and thanks for your post .
yes I know JSA is for the unemployed people ( which I am at the mo)
but I'm not working over 16 hours and the pay is only commission
based ( ie if I don't make a sale i don;t get money , if I get a sale I get 2% of the vale of the sale) , but cos I'm not working over 16 hours a week , can I still keep my JSA ???, if you can help out with this that would be fab - thanks all

Did you know if you make no commission ( ie no one wants to buy) then the employer must make the hourly rate up to minimum wage? However, if you mke one commission that makes enough commission to pay you min wage for the week etc, then they can make that payment to you and dont need to pay minimum wage on top.

Does this make sense?

pipscot

lynzpower wrote: »

Did you know if you make no commission ( ie no one wants to buy) then the employer must make the hourly rate up to minimum wage? However, if you mke one commission that makes enough commission to pay you min wage for the week etc, then they can make that payment to you and dont need to pay minimum wage on top.

Does this make sense?

the minimum wage doesn't apply to the self-employed?:)

lynzpower

It depends on what the self employment is though does it not?

As clearly she will be selling somehing on behalf of someone ? Ie she is not getting commission only for selling her own belongings/ work ? She starts next week and calls it a job. She gets paid by someone else.

it might be called self employment but it smells like a job to me