help with what i may be entitled to.

jamiewr5555

Hi everyone,

I would like some help with what I may or may not be entitled to.

Im 31 years old and have two children who live with there mother.

I live with my parents at there home and pay no rent or contribute. I did try to get help from the council for rent to them but can't get anything as there family.

I have recently gone self employed after spending 6 months on job seekers. I currently receive £65 a week from an agency called Enterprise from whom helped me set up a joint business with my mother. I currently work less than 16hrs a week. Estimated around £40 a week I earn from the company.

I see my children every 2 weeks and travel 500 miles round trip which costs me in the region of £200. I pay no CSA payments as yet as they want a 3 month assessment from when I went self employed which is due in October.

I have always worked full time since the age of 17 years old and never claimed any benefits until job seekers.

Is there anything I am entitled to receive?? I have looked but I seem to find nothing and always in jargon!!!

Thanks in advance for any advice given.

Jamie.

pmlindyloo

Since you live with your parents then you will not be entitled to any Housing Benefit or Council Tax benefit.

Since you are not disabled then you would not be entitled to DLA.

Since you have £105 per week then you are not entitled to JSA.

So we are left with Working Tax Credit.

In order to claim this you need to be working at least 30 hours per week.

If you have a look on this site

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/claiming/income-hours/work-out-hours.htm

you will see that you can include various things in your 30 hours.

If none of these apply to you then, in my opinion, you need to do a serious rethink in order to up your income.

You have children and as such you need to support them financially.
Plus you need to keep in contact with them which is costing you a tidy sum. Plus you need to 'pay your way' whilst living at home.

So, you have two options:

1. If you really believe that this self employment will 'take off' then you need to find yourself some part-time work (basically anything) to give you some extra money.

2. Give up the idea of the self employment until you are 'back on your feet' and get a full time job, a home of your own (eventually) and be able to financially support your children.

None of this is meant to sound harsh but just realistic. Your children must come first.

BigAunty

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any benefits that you are entitled to - you earn more than you'd get on JSA and work too few hours to qualify for working tax credits.

Is there any reason why you can't work 30 hours per week which perhaps would let you qualify for WTC? If so, model the info on the Turn2us online benefit calculator.

Your travel expenses are irrelevant to both your CSA payments and your benefit entitlements.

However, there's nothing to stop the parent with care from giving you some of her child tax credits/child benefit as a private arrangement if she wishes.

EDIT - it's great to be self-employed if you can build a sustainable, self supporting business but once that £65 subsidy ends, and you are left with £40 if you can't build up your business, then what then? Realistically, if you work around 16 hours per week and earn £40 (after expenses?) you are earning about £2.50 an hour, much less than the National Minimum Wage. You'd earn £200 per week in a regular job on NMW.

Ellejmorgan

If your ex was to go to CSA you would be liable for £5 pw despite employment due to low wage, this is what my ex has been assessed at he earns approx £110 pw...

Why not work longer hours work in ASDA or something surely..

jamiewr5555

Thank you all for replying.

The business is taking off very well and I am seeing a more take home of money in the last week with more bookings over the next few weeks.
One thing that is not as easy as to say it is why don't u do extra work. It is not as easy as that! I spent 6 months applying for around 120 jobs and still got nothing!! I am very experienced in management and have numerous qualifications but still nothing came my way. I left a perfectly good job with good earnings down south to move back up north to revive my lifestyle and b more stable for my children as living in the south proved to be expensive and once paying bills etc only left me with around £100 a month to live off. It wasn't an easy decision to leave as my children are there and I had a very good life for 15years there.

I accept csa from the last comment and have always paid for my children in 3 years of doing so and when the time comes to Kay again I will be happy to do so.

I am currently looking for part time work to bump my income up.

Many thanks once again.

chris1973

Is the 16 hours a week from self employment?, if so why the limited hours?, I know several people who are self employed, and they work all of the hours they can, growing and building up the business, updating their websites and blog pages, finding new customers / suppliers, canvassing, mailshooting etc.

Mara69

gregbythesea wrote: »

I used to invoice people based on what they could afford, not what I wanted

Not the sharpest tool in the box, are you? :cool:

BigAunty

gregbythesea wrote: »

I was self employed for a number of years 1983 - 1989 and built up a business from nothing.

Eventually after 3 years I was working way in excess of 50 hours a week.

Using your argument I should have been on a good income at the time.

Wrong, after all expenses I 'earned' no more than I could have done by working 15 hours a week behind a bar in a pub.

Not everything comes down to money. I used to invoice people based on what they could afford, not what I wanted. There was no point in billing someone who you knew could never afford to pay it.

Some people I used to do it for nothing as the job was more important than anything that I could make out of it.

Was it a success, yes, in 1989 I decided to capitalise and sold the business. Given that I had a large portfolio of clients and the potential was there for the new owner, I received £25,000 for just being a nice guy!

Selective memory, Andy - you've been a benefits bludger, deprivation of capital case, had properties repossessed and been an alround PITA on these forums for years. Anyone can be a legend in their own lunchtime on a forum. What you've just done in those previous paragraphs is point out how poor you've been as a businessman....

Unfortunately, the problem with giving benefits to some of the self-employed is that they backfire and merely prop up an ailing enterprise that has no chance of making the business owner independent of the state purse.

The benefits should and can be be a temporary springboard into a successful business but in some cases they merely knee-cap any true entreprenurial spirit since the risk is put back on the tax payer and the claimant is disincentivised to grow the business because of the withdrawal of benefits and entry into taxation (and extra work ethic required).

I say good luck to the OP, wish him well in his business and hopes it is successful.

I'd rather see that than your endless whining posts about how unfair/generous the benefits system is (you can never make up your mind if it is stingy or pays you too much because it really depends on the new online identity you adopt as to whether you brag or complain).