Carers Allowance & Self Employment HELP :)

kemo_2002

Hi Everyone i have a couple of questions regarding self employment and carers. I currently care for my 3 years old daughter full time, i get careres allowance for this.

Also i am still caring for her, i decided to set up my own business selling my items on ebay, i have contacted HMRC and they are sending me a form out to fill in.

My question is, i never have a clue what my earnings are going to be week to week, one week i may earn £150 net, one week i might earn £100, or £25. I undertand i cannot earn over the £100 mark, but that with self employment you can adverage it out if you income in never the same.

Is this done monthly or anually? if its monthly, and say i earn £110 each week one month, i will lose all my £200 carers that month, so earnning an extra £10 per week will lose me £50 per week in carers. If they did it over a year, i would still get it, because the following month i would most likely be well under the limit. How do they decide weather to asses it monthly or yearly?

I am trying desparetely not to rely on benefits, hense starting up my own business, but as stated previously losing £200 per month to gain £40 seems a bit silly, when the next monthi might only earn £100 all month.

Hope that makes sense

carerof3

They will average the earnings over the year.

see: http://www.nhs.uk/CarersDirect/moneyandlegal/carersbenefits/Pages/CarersAllowance.aspx

rogerblack

carerof3 wrote: »

They will average the earnings over the year.

see: http://www.nhs.uk/CarersDirect/moneyandlegal/carersbenefits/Pages/CarersAllowance.aspx

This does not say that, referring to a 5 week period.

You need to confirm beforehand what the averaging rules are that they agree to in your case.

In addition, it's not 100/week.
It's 100 - minus tax, NI contributions, half a personal pension, and expenses 'wholely and unavoidably' caused by work.

You can claim CA with a thousand pounds a week after tax, as long as you put 2000 a week into a personal pension!

carerof3

rogerblack wrote: »

This does not say that, referring to a 5 week period.

You need to confirm beforehand what the averaging rules are that they agree to in your case.

In addition, it's not 100/week.
It's 100 - minus tax, NI contributions, half a personal pension, and expenses 'wholely and unavoidably' caused by work.

You can claim CA with a thousand pounds a week after tax, as long as you put 2000 a week into a personal pension!

The five week rule is if you are employed. The OP is self-employed so the following (from the site) applies
I am self-employed - what information will they need?

If you're self-employed, your weekly earnings will be averaged over a year. If you have recently become self-employed or there has been a change that's likely to affect the normal pattern of your business, the DWP can calculate your earnings in a different way. The DWP will decide what period of time would be appropriate to assess your earnings. If you do not think that the DWP has been fair in the way it has looked at your earnings, you could ask it to look at the decision again, or appeal against it.
You will need to supply an up-to-date set of accounts when first claiming. Expenses (such as a car or telephone) incurred for the purposes of the business can be deducted.

They average mine over a year, I only earn about £1000 a year though, mainly during the months before Christmas. I make craft items all year, and sell at that time.