Benefit reassurance

Metalwrath

Hi there,

Apologies for a long post.
I'm Chris 36yo and a single dad to two amazing kids aged 9/10 soon to be 10/11. I'll been RP(responsible parent?) for around 6 years - had a few girlfriends in that time but none who ever came close to entering our family unit.

All dates are estimated but of the 6 year, the first 4 were 16+ hours pw employed PAYE. (made redundant from job - along with benefits has no problems budgeting and keep the kidlets fed/housed and happy

Then I spent a year claiming IS/JSA[this changed at sons 9th Birthday] (and other benefits that we were entitiled too.) this gave me a lot more freetime to do stuff like housework and look for very best deal - in combination with my frugal nature, our bank account was still steadily rising - having to keep a fourtnightly meeting at JCP was pure agony. I despise filling out forms!!!!!

As I'd been unemployed for over a year I qualified for IWC (£40 per week tax free for a year - providing i do 16+ hours a week.)
After a couple of haflarsed applications sent out I decided to start on my own as a cabinet maKer/joiner/ high end carpenter.

At the start of the business in November I guessed my overall total weekly profits would be -£100. Now it's the end of the tax year and my wonderful accountant has informed me that the actual figure was £175 per week.

When on income support/JSA my bank balance was iro £1500 in credit

Since working there past few months i now have £6.5k in my currant account - I'm very happy to pay back any tax/child tax credit that I've been overpaid (which happens at the April review afaik?)

Otherwise is much of that money mine to spend ?- we've applied for passports this year and I'd dearly love to take the children for their first holiday every abroad.

Mara69

I think it'll be impossible for anyone on here to tell you what you'll have to repay in respect of any benefits you've been claiming. Quite apart from anything else, your post is extremely vague in respect of what you've been claiming. You make no mention of HB/CTB/TC/WTC etc. You need to declare your earnings to the relevant departments. I'd hold off on that holiday though....you may be in for a shock as I think you've certainly been in receipt of far more than you're entitled to.

cattie

I've no advice, but like to say congratulations on your initiative in starting up on your own & hope your business goes from strength to strength.
You sound like a dad to be proud of and you obviously love your kids to bits, which is so heartwarming.

zagfles

It doesn't sound like you'll have a tax credits overpayment for last year, since there's a £10k disregard for income increases from one tax year to the next. But you might be being overpaid now, you'll have to work out what your taxable income was for last year and what's it's likely to be this year.