Incapacity rule doesn't seem fair

wassup

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Although I'm sorry for your situation, it seems that by trying to beat the system in one way, you have made a rod for your own (or your wife's ) back! I'm not suggesting that this was illegal but it seems to me that you can't have it both ways; avoiding paying tax and NI but expecting to receive the benefits that you get when you have paid.

I know what your trying to say, but the way I was thinking was at the time our accountant advised us that in order to save the effort invloved in doing the paperwork etc it would be easier if my wife got paid just below the threshold.

At the end of the day it would have made no difference to me tax wise. Say I made £20,000. I then deduct say £4500 as pay to my wife and I pay tax on balance of £15,500.

Say I had paid my wife a bit extra to take her above the threshold. She would now pay a small amount of tax and NI but I would pay less because my profit would be less.

The total amount paid would be the same between us except we would have saved not only ourselves doing papaerwork but also the system having to process it, not to menton the trees that didnt need to be cut down to record it all.

So by following advice, not saving any tax or NI and streamlining the process for all concerned we end up much worse off.

Somebody should highlight this anomaly in the self employed section so that people can be aware of the risk they are taking by following the advice I and no doubt many other husband and wife teams get.

Spendless

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I suppose the bottom line is that IB is a Contributory Benefit, and if you haven't contributed in the appropriate tax years, you won't get it.

Yes that's right, same thing happened to me. Worked full-time for many years but the times when I became ill, I had taken time out to have a family and worked part time. Couldn't get SSP either cos I earned below the 'lower earnings level' and hadn't worked long enough for my employer to get company sickpay.

krisskross

My husband is just over 5 years older than me so I didn't have to wait to get my pension, such as it is. The DWP did phone to ask if I wanted to go onto full stamp payments but it would have been of absolutely no benefit to me in that I couldn't improve the pension I was going to get on my husband's contributions in the time that was left.So I declined and kept the £100 or so a month in my pocket.