Was told im not entitled to job seekers because i am self employed

Hammyman

trevc wrote: »

Hi

I was told at the benefits office that i am not entitled to job seekers or any other benefits because i was self employed and had paid the wrong national insurance even though it was the one i was told to pay and had paid ordinary N.I. for over 30 years before the 10 of being self employed, i have just about managed to get by for over a year on savings and bits and pieces of work but have no work at all now is there anything i can do?

any help would be appreciated...

No. You pay Class 2 and Class 4 NIC as self employed which only count towards contributions based sick related benefits such as ESA. The fact you paid "normal" NI before you were self employed is irrelevant as they only go on the previous two tax years.

Is there anything you can do? Look for more work, perhaps by doing small jobs as a one man band rather than being a brickie subbying for Balfour or whoever.

robus

jetplane wrote: »

Hi yes, has your neighbour checked that the pension credits have forwarded the information to the local authority and have they acted on that info? He will have an award letter which will show the income they used.

The LA may have asked for a form to be completed to check liability for rent etc and they may have processed it and assesed the claim on his savings before pension credit made their decision.

Usually when the LA recieve the info from the pension service they ammend the HB & CTB and passport the person on to full benefit and backdate to the date of the GPC award. Ask your neighbour to check this out with his local housing benefit office.

Yes I did that for him. The LA have details that he was awarded a small amount of Guaranteed PC. However the LA insist that they have to work his CTB out based on their regulations.
When I told them that I believed he was entitled to full CTB because he got the Guaranteed bit, they said no he isn't - full CTB does not automatically follow if you get PC. He has savings well above the £10,000 limit and they have reduced his CTB on that basis.

Are you actually right that no matter what level of Guaranteed PC you get, even if it is just 50p you are automatically entiled to full CTB?

He owns his own home with no mortgage.

jetplane

robus here's the link 6th bullet point down and the limit for council tax is £16,000 someones telling porkies

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/benefits/help_with_your_council_tax_council_tax_benefit.htm#how_much_council_tax_benefit_can_you_get

robus

jetplane wrote: »

robus here's the link 6th bullet point down and the limit for council tax is £16,000 someones telling porkies

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/benefits/help_with_your_council_tax_council_tax_benefit.htm#how_much_council_tax_benefit_can_you_get

Thanks for that. I understood that if you get the Guaranteed part of TC, there is no upper limit to savings for CTB.

I think I had better see my neighbour and get him down to the council to sort it out.