Benefit entitlement: do business assets count as savings?

gterr

Hello there,

Long story short: Husband and I own a holiday cottage run as a bone-fide trading business. Income is mostly swallowed up by expenses at the moment, with a very small net profit. This may improve in future years when the renovation work is complete.

Husband also has part time job at a supermarket but likely to be laid off shortly. We live in a remote place where there are few jobs, and husband is likely to remain unemployed if this does happen. He does not have enough NI contributions to get JSA (because he was previously paying Class2 NI because of being self-employed and has only been at supermarket a few months.)

I do a bit of seasonal bed and breakfast from a spare room in our own house. I am disabled and am currently preparing a DLA application. We have some savings, but this is earmarked for paying off the interest-only mortgage on the holiday cottage, which we must pay off some time in the next 6 years. Aside from that we have no income and are struggling.

My question is: would the holiday cottage be regarded as an asset, and so mean we could not try to apply for benefits, or are business assets classed differently?

If business assets are treated differently, would paying off the business mortgage with the money set aside for this purpose be viewed as having purposely deprived ourselves of savings in order to claim benefits?

I'd be grateful for any comments.

NASA_2

If you are only applying for DLA and no other benefit then you dont need to worry about the business asset.

If you were claiming a means tested benefit then it would be considered a business asset but would likely be disregarded as it is required to keep the business running. If the business were to cease then it does fall to be treated as capital and would need to be disposed of or kept and taken into account.

Income would be a factor - if it is a 'negative' income then nothing could be taken into account.

karenx

Do you have acess to these savings? If so then its counted as your savings which you can use to pay for day to day living. If you use it to pay off the mortgage you will be treated as if you still had it