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Universal Credits - Self Employed
Comments
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MissMoneypenny wrote: »You really don't think you are taking benefits if you take less money back than you paid in taxes??? If we all took back the taxes we paid as a "tax rebate", then where would the govenment get this lost revenue from that is needed to fund public services i.e. schools, NHS, roads, the welfare bill?
If someone ask for benefits and then thinks they have just got a "tax rebate", then should those people then pay for their childrens education, or their own and their childrens medical care etc, out of that "tax rebate" that they took back?
Benefits are not tax rebates, they are welfare payments that people apply for. If you don't apply for benefits, then you aren't just given them. If you don't meet the criteria to get benefits i.e.low income, then you don't get given this help from the welfare state.
The welfare bill is now so big, that in the last few years, for the first time ever, the amount of money the government collects from income tax, doesnt even cover the UKs massive welfare bill! Scary stuff.
Anyone who pays income tax, especially British people, and doesn't claim back some of that tax paid if they are entitled to claim it back, whatever the mechanism used to refund that tax, is, imho, not of their right mind.
If the government wants a smaller deficit, maybe they should look to their own wasteful spending first, before attacking welfare, health and education. Like the Edinburgh tramline. What a complete shambles and waste of money.
Or how about restricting welfare to British citizens? Should British people who are entitled to claim really be restraining themselves from claiming when we are prepared to fund every EU citizen who moves here with the full spectrum of benefits? After all, it's not as if many foreign citizens - and no foreign companies at all, it would seem (Amazon and Starbucks come to mind) - are paying into the system.
Why is welfare paid out able to be spent on anything anyway? Maybe we should start doing as they do in the States, paying benefits onto special cards which cannot be used to buy harmful things like tobacco and alcohol. Or "waste of money" things like scratch cards and lottery tickets.0 -
I realise my posts were a while back on this thread, but someone suggested (can't remember who) that self-employed people running businesses with low profit would be better off getting minimum wage jobs rather than drawing working tax credit.I believe its better for the state to give a helping hand up (even for a few years) and to encourage and support entrepreneurship rather than forcing people into dead-end, low-skill jobs, where they will have to be subsidised for life. I'm afraid we are starting to value employed work for its own sake just a little too much in this country - allow people a little lee-way and they'll stand up and support themselves as much as they can.0
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Housing benefits should be restricted to the lower of the LHA or, say, 80% of the actual rent. What incentive is there for people to move to areas they can afford and rent within their means, or accept social housing, if the housing benefit is enough to fully fund a three bedroom house in one of the nicest parts of town?
Erm, it already kind of works like that. LHA is the way of working out housing benefit for privae renters. It's based on the cheapest 30% of properties in the area of the size you're entitled to. Eg. a couple with one child would be entitled to a 2-bed property, but would only get enough money for the cheapest 30% of 2-bed properties in the area.
Housing benefit for social tenants is always covered in full by housing benefit - although now the 'bedroom tax' is coming in, some housing benefit will be docked for bedrooms deemed unecessary. (Im in favour of this broadly speaking, but against the ham-fisted way they are implementing it.) It's worth pointing out that in order to get a social property initially, it usually has to be the appropriate size (some are underoccupied from the start due to being hard-to-let or unsuitable for children etc). Also, social rents are usually lower than private rentals (round here some of the 2-bed council flats are cheaper than renting a room privately!)0 -
No...it will gradually be rolled out so it could be a few years away yet. You can still declare a very low income but you would become subject to conditionality which is basically the same as being unemployed. You need to demonstrate that you are doing something to increase your combined wage to equal two adults on a full time minimum wage to continue to recieve the maximum amount of working and child tax credits. Allowances can be made for your child caring responsibilities if they are young enough so it may be one adult working full time and another working part time. It's still all being worked out and will not roll out fully next year.My husband is self employed but not earning that much per hr, even though he works more than 30hrs week.
We are really just living off tax credits, both working and child.
Is it correct that next April all selfemployed will be considered to be earning min wage per hr you do not earn that much?:footie:
Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. 0 -
My husband is self employed but not earning that much per hr, even though he works more than 30hrs week.
We are really just living off tax credits, both working and child.
Is it correct that next April all self employed will be considered to be earning min wage per hr you do not earn that much?
Its only a white paper at the moment. Very un-workable for the self employed.
Even worse if you are below min wage living on savings.
I would think the 16k in savings rule will stay, so if you have more than 16k in savings i would get rid of it now.0 -
My husband is self employed but not earning that much per hr, even though he works more than 30hrs week.
We are really just living off tax credits, both working and child.
Is it correct that next April all selfemployed will be considered to be earning min wage per hr you do not earn that much?
In addition to what HappyMJ just said, it seems that from what people have put here; a new business will be given a years support from welfare payments, to make money? If that is true I suspect that will be a year of really working at least 30 hours per week though and not just claiming such as things '10 hours a week updating the website'.RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0 -
Anyone who pays income tax, especially British people, and doesn't claim back some of that tax paid if they are entitled to claim it back, whatever the mechanism used to refund that tax, is, imho, not of their right mind.
If the government wants a smaller deficit, maybe they should look to their own wasteful spending first, before attacking welfare, health and education. Like the Edinburgh tramline. What a complete shambles and waste of money.
Or how about restricting welfare to British citizens? Should British people who are entitled to claim really be restraining themselves from claiming when we are prepared to fund every EU citizen who moves here with the full spectrum of benefits? After all, it's not as if many foreign citizens - and no foreign companies at all, it would seem (Amazon and Starbucks come to mind) - are paying into the system.
Why is welfare paid out able to be spent on anything anyway? Maybe we should start doing as they do in the States, paying benefits onto special cards which cannot be used to buy harmful things like tobacco and alcohol. Or "waste of money" things like scratch cards and lottery tickets.
What about the immigrants who have come here on the UK's job shortages list? We need these people.
I don't like keeping lazy people, full stop.
Perhaps a better system would be to implement a habitual residency test for every welfare payment as some other EU countries have done. i.e in order to claim any welfare payments or council housing at all, the claimants must have worked in the UK for at least 37 hours a week, for the 3 years preceeding their claim. Then limit the number of years they can claim to the numbers of years that have worked full time in the UK. That would then ecourage people to work instead of just expecting to live off the UK taxpayer.
The government are already talking about giving claimants swipe style cards that can only be used at certain places and can't be used for booze and fags.RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0 -
So it is getting harder for new start ups. Just what the country needs right now, less growth.
Its not written in stone yet. If they go with white paper, then unemployment would rocket.
There may also be ways around it, just the same as there are ways around the 50k child benefit cap.
Think the accountants are going to do well out of it lol0 -
So it is getting harder for new start ups. Just what the country needs right now, less growth.
You could get a business loan: which is what we use to have to do before welfare payments like tax credits came in.
The new rules will mean that new start ups will have some help and during that time, they will have to put the hours in to make their business succeed; instead of just doing enough hours to claim welfare. The country really can't afford the latter of these types, anymore.RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0 -
MissMoneypenny wrote: »You could get a business loan: which is what we use to have to do before welfare payments like tax credits came in.
The new rules will mean that new start ups will have some help and during that time, they will have to put the hours in to make their business succeed; instead of just doing enough hours to claim welfare. The country really can't afford the latter of these types, anymore.
yes and when/if it fails you can just go on the dole lol
i can't see it working as it should....it will only weed out the worst offenders. Eg. skivvers with low turnover
Decent turnover with low profit should manage to go under the radar.0
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