Will going part-time self employed (sole trader) affect our benefits??

HelterskelteringPenguin

Hi, I am currently working 3 nights a week for well known supermarket as this suits our family needs as I have 5 kids 8yrs and under, and want to spend more time with them while they are still young.
In the meantime I have got HGV driving experience and was wanting to know about going part-time self employed working for a particular small time haulage company to cover odd shifts or weeks when their own drivers are off sick or on holiday.
My mate works full time as a self employed driver for this firm and he has even found extra work for the owner. I did 4 days driving for them last week as a driver went on holiday. My mate and the owner both advised me that if I wanted to earn more money then to go self-employed rather than putting me in their PAYE books just for 4 days. so I created an invoice which they seemed happy about and will get a cheque for it this week, though apparently I need to contact HMRC and register as self-employed or sole trader etc, to obtain a number to put on the invoice.
But now my wife is worrying that doing this will affect our child/working tax credits and housing benefits etc, even though my mate says they wont do anything till after end of following tax year!
So does anyone know the facts concerning this type situation? I still want to work part-time at supermarket, and this self-employed extra work would just be few extra weeks or days here and there throughout the year, so I wouldn't be able to know in advance what my predicted income would be to tell the benefits etc.

Thanks in advance for any advice

steve1980

Cake and eating spring to mind. The reason they won't take you on as employed is because it will cost them money.

If you are working more than 16 hours then yes it will affect your benefits and you should advise the JCP at the earliest possible time.

Your "mate" doesn't know what he is talking about. It affects your benefits from day one, not a year down the road.

pitkin2020

I would also check about working for the same company as self employed. As far as I was aware self employed drivers had to work for more than 1 company. I don't know the ins and outs of it, I only know what a self employed HGV driver was telling me that he can't just work for one company solely, so I would look into that a little deeper.

paulofessex

It will certainly effect your Housing Benefit straight away.

I think you may be better off considering losing the supermarket job and working for a local Driving agency when you haven't got work via the source of HGV driving.

Juggling around with Tax Credits etc can only lead to confusion and overpayments. Don't forget you may still get Working Tax Credits

Savvy_Sue

To be fair, SOME tax credits aren't recalculated until the end of the tax year as long as you are still 'within the limits', but I think you're still supposed to tell them of any changes.

And Housing Benefit definitely want to know at the time, and not next year, if your income goes up or down.

And it is a nightmare ...

Not to mention the fact that the supermarket may have a clause requiring you to get permission to undertake other paid work - do check if you want to keep that job.

And the fact that it's not really the haulier's job to say whether you're employed or not: that's down to HMRC. See this link.

I'm not even going to think about the Working Time Regs and the limits on the number of hours you can work as a driver, and rest times etc etc etc, but I sincerely hope the haulage company does!