partner wants to go self employed but worried about paying bills.

vickynleon

basically my partner has been looking into going self employed for a long time. He has been to a couple of meetings at a business centre for advice and has been sorting out trade insurance which is now up and runnings, he has a van ready and its all kitted out as he will be doing a mobile business so he almost ready to go.
Now the things that's worrying us about him leaving his full time job and going slf employed are making sure that are bills are paid so i'm hoping for a bit of advice really on what we could possibly claim to help us until hopefully he's making a comfortable amount for us to live on.

atm he is averaging to earn £150 pw before tax.
i am currently on maternity leave and due to go back 1st april and i hae confirmed i am able to go back 16 hours so will be earning around £450 4 weekly.
we have 2 children, 1 is 5 other is 6 months.
we are currently buying our house with a mortgage so thats our main concern.

i have also been looking into going back to college to earn more qualifications but up until now i have been working full time so havent had the chance. so what im wondering is would i be better of going to college than working? i would think it would be a full time course i would be doing.

could we get any help at all, i've done a calculator for benefits but they ask so many questions that i got confused as we haven't had to claim benefits before but now we would like the support of the government for a short period until my partner can build up a bigger client base.

hope i have given enough info. i've probally just confused everyone to what i want to know but hopefully it makes sense. Thanks in advance

pmlindyloo

Just some thoughts,

Would it be less stressful for your partner to continue in his full time job and do his mobile business at the weekends until he has built up a client base? It just strikes me that with your going part time and with two young children it may make better sense this way and stop you worrying about money.

The only benefits that I think that you will be eligible for are tax credits and possibly council tax benefit. I cannot see any way that you would get help with the mortgage.

Tax credits are very complicated as they are based on last tax year's income. You may not be eligible (difficult to assess as you give no details of the income you had last year) but you can also give an estimate of this coming tax year (overestimate if you do this - otherwise you will get an overpayment)

Are you claiming child tax credits at the moment?

To be honest, because of the precarious economic sitaution I would be very much inclined to consider my earlier suggestion - don't give up the full time job until you are sure that the self employement can finance your outgoings.

For the same reason I would suggest you postpone the college course until you are more secure.

Could you perhaps do evening classes/similar instead?

I am sorry to sound negative and I applaud you for trying to improve your lives but wouldn't want to paint a rosy picture financially as regards benefits.

helentay_2

Whatever happened to the old fashioned advice of when starting a business always, always make sure that you have sufficient capital reserves, borrowed or savings, to make up for the lean times?

Why is it that people today are expecting the state to fund start ups?

When my dad started his business, he worked day and night for years knowing that the family needed money. The lack of income/profit is what drives ambition. He used all his savings and more besides and knew full well that if he failed he had put the family home at risk.

Dunroamin

vickynleon wrote: »

basically my partner has been looking into going self employed for a long time. He has been to a couple of meetings at a business centre for advice and has been sorting out trade insurance which is now up and runnings, he has a van ready and its all kitted out as he will be doing a mobile business so he almost ready to go.
Now the things that's worrying us about him leaving his full time job and going slf employed are making sure that are bills are paid so i'm hoping for a bit of advice really on what we could possibly claim to help us until hopefully he's making a comfortable amount for us to live on.

atm he is averaging to earn £150 pw before tax.
i am currently on maternity leave and due to go back 1st april and i hae confirmed i am able to go back 16 hours so will be earning around £450 4 weekly.
we have 2 children, 1 is 5 other is 6 months.
we are currently buying our house with a mortgage so thats our main concern.

i have also been looking into going back to college to earn more qualifications but up until now i have been working full time so havent had the chance. so what im wondering is would i be better of going to college than working? i would think it would be a full time course i would be doing.

could we get any help at all, i've done a calculator for benefits but they ask so many questions that i got confused as we haven't had to claim benefits before but now we would like the support of the government for a short period until my partner can build up a bigger client base.

hope i have given enough info. i've probally just confused everyone to what i want to know but hopefully it makes sense. Thanks in advance

If he's only earning £150pw he can't be working full time so I can't see why he couldn't carry on with his employment at the same time as building up his self employment.

Just reread and realised you may have meant he thinks he'll earn £150 pw from the self employment, which really isn't enough to support a family of 5. I agree with the earlier poster about staying in his job and building up his business part time until (if?) he can earn a worthwhile amount from it.

BigAunty

You may find that you qualify for working tax credits, child tax credits, perhaps council tax discount. The Turn2us online benefit calculator is regarded as a fairly accurate one so long as the user puts in the correct data to begin with. It's not good for calculating household income when there is a student involved.

Bit of bad timing with deciding to buy a property when entering low paid self employment as tenants on low income qualify for housing benefit but there's no help available to home owners in employment on low incomes (help is restricted to certain types of benefit claimants).

Look up student finance on the Direct Gov website. So long as your partner is working 24 hours per week, you still might qualify for working tax credits while you are at college, plus child tax credit/child benefit anyway.

Download the MSE budget planner and get a good grip on your current household budget, work through the website and learn where to slash costs.

You need to look at how the move to the Universal Credit system may affect you. In the future, tax credits are being scrapped. One major change is that there is additional conditionality for the self employed because the govt found that under tax credits, it led to long-term benefit dependency by that group, something they want to shake off in the new changes. They want the self employed to be more self sufficient and earn at least the NMW from their employment.

storytime

My husband is self employed and thankfully our mortgage has finished. I find it very stressful as for 2 months of the year (Dec & Jan) he hardly has any work, he is a painter and decorator then it picks up and it is non stop throughout the summer.Before he started we built up an emergency fund and he kept a part time job as well. This was supposed to be short term but we are loathe for him to give this up as it is money coming in every month.
I would second what some of the posts have said, stay in full time work and build up business or least ask current employer if he can go part time. Paid holidays, pension and peace of mind are worth a lot, especially as you have children to think of. I would also hold off doing a college course as starting your own business is stressful enough.

princessdon

I have never ever advised against college so this is a first for me.

You really can't afford it. A) Fees will be loans so you need to take a loan b) You have a mortage so NO help C) Universal Credit will require more hours

I'd look at Open University and work if I were you.

vickynleon

Thats what he will be doing is working part time on the weekends for the next couple of weeks but he already has alot of work lined up so i dont think he'd be struggling for work but we need to think about it just incase.

The reason he wants to go self employed is so we can be better off because at the moment we are struggling so unable to save. WE may not even need help but i'm just thinking of the worse case while he is building up contracts. He's working his butt off at the moment and it takes it toll on the family because our children suffer because he doesnt have much time for them. He works 6 days sometimes 7 so cant physically do anymore as his work is very physical so very tiring. thats the reason he is wanting to go self employed so we can be better off.
He will be working full time but aftermaterials were just estimating that at start off he would bring home about £150pw. we don't want to claim benefits thats why we have always worked full time but he really wants to make a go at his own business and this is the only way. Everything we have he has bought himself. if i was feeling better i would of been going back to work full time but atm i am currently under alot of medication which takes a while to settle down so starting off part time until i can manage full time.

NPowerUser

Not sure whether earning £3.75 an hour profit from self employment over a 40 hour week would qualify you much for Universal Credit when its implemented soon?

Others on this board might have a better idea?

vickynleon

Thanks for all the advice. This is alli needed to know as to how much we would get if need be but hopefully it wont come to the point of needing benefits and he'll be unindated with work from day one as he wants to make his kids proud and hopefully we'll be able to live comfortably instead of struggling.He's such a hard worker so i'msure he'lldo us proud and earn enough money for what we need and more.

brutus1983

has he got any leads to any regular work yet?
has he been out and advertised himself?
has he got any capital to keep himself on the road if his van brakes down, broken into and tools stolen (tool insurance can cost more than the tools)

my advise is keep in the current job and whilst looking for regular work when he decides to go self employed as maybe a subcontractor to other firms (you didnt say what he does)

when he gets enough work to come through then leave the current job andgoout as self employed