trying self employment - how affect benefits etc?

helly333

Hi
I'm on HB and JSA and am considering some freelance work for maybe 17 hours or so over 4 or 5 weeks intermittently over the summer.
I'd love to do it (using my skills rather than boring JSA type work) but think I would need to...

a) sign off JSA which i dont mind except i wonder if going off and doing self employed work will complicate things.
b) find out how it would affect HB
c) pay tax and nat insurance. I don't know how to do either.
d) register as self emplyed?

Is this all in any way practical? Or am I going to end up complicating my life?
thanks

helly333

I had to abandon that idea. its just too complicated to deal with the complexities of benefits and self employment at the moment. Although I do intend doing it in the future.

Who?_me?

Did you find any information Helly? I have been asked to go self employed, but as am currently doing another battle with Lillith (the gremilin in my JSA info). This time the little gremlin has hidden my paper work, and delayed my acount as well as not letting my previous claim be stopped. I am worried that Lilith will find its way into any self employed information held on me by the government, or have a cousin n there. I don't think my mental health with cope with HMRC and DWP gremilins.
If you have any info, I would be glad to know it. Thanks

sovilla

How long have you been on JSA?
My partner has been on it for around 4 months now and mentioned he wanted to go self employed so they have put him on the new enterprise scheme, he gets around £66 a week for the first 13 weeks and then around £33 a week after that even if he is making money. There is also a start up grant/loan of upto £1000. He was due to go on income based JSA and wouldn't have got any money due to my wage so this is a bonus and he can do what he's always wanted to do. I'm assuming that because he won't actually be earning much for a while that we will still be able to claim Hb and CT support.

The guy at the job centre also told him not to sign of JSA so that if the business doesn't work then he still has an active claim, he won't actually get any money but will still be paying NI contributions.

I would speak with the job centre. They may be able to advise further. I wouldn't give up on the chance to do a bit of work and maybe start a profitable business.

Who?_me?

Thats good to know Sovilla, thanks. Will look into it.

helly333

sovilla wrote: »

How long have you been on JSA?
My partner has been on it for around 4 months now and mentioned he wanted to go self employed so they have put him on the new enterprise scheme, he gets around £66 a week for the first 13 weeks and then around £33 a week after that even if he is making money. There is also a start up grant/loan of upto £1000. He was due to go on income based JSA and wouldn't have got any money due to my wage so this is a bonus and he can do what he's always wanted to do. I'm assuming that because he won't actually be earning much for a while that we will still be able to claim Hb and CT support.

The guy at the job centre also told him not to sign of JSA so that if the business doesn't work then he still has an active claim, he won't actually get any money but will still be paying NI contributions.

I would speak with the job centre. They may be able to advise further. I wouldn't give up on the chance to do a bit of work and maybe start a profitable business.

Thanks Ive been on jsa quite a while. The new enterprise scheme was talked about some months ago and I looked into it thoroughly but ended up deciding it was a bad route to take as they would expect results from me with regards to self employed work/my own business and I'm nowhere near ready for that....
except with this thing recently which is a bit different and something I would have been capable of doing immediately, hence the need to know how to be capable of working as a freelancer.

helly333

Who?_me? wrote: »

Did you find any information Helly? I have been asked to go self employed, but as am currently doing another battle with Lillith (the gremilin in my JSA info). This time the little gremlin has hidden my paper work, and delayed my acount as well as not letting my previous claim be stopped. I am worried that Lilith will find its way into any self employed information held on me by the government, or have a cousin n there. I don't think my mental health with cope with HMRC and DWP gremilins.
If you have any info, I would be glad to know it. Thanks

I didn't really find anything out sorry and have kind of decided that I'll have to get there the long slow way of learning. I can't sign off benefits at the mo as its too complicated.
The new enterprise thing might work for you if its still available. Back when I was looking at it I think they were planning on ending it soon.
Lilith sounds annoying!

tiger_eyes

When I declared a one-off, low-value freelance job to the jobcentre, their paperwork screwup resulted in all my benefits being stopped for six weeks without warning. So you might want to build up some savings before doing any freelancing...

furrybertie

I did the enterprise scheme after being unemployed for nearly a year - took months to get it sorted as the job centre didn't know anything about it so after lots of faffing on my part, I finally got to meet up with Ixion (the company that runs it - London).

for some reason I had to do the Business Planning before hand and then they signed me up on the scheme but when I went to the workshop I found I was the only one... the workshop was on business planning!? I'd already done that part... they were all still on benefits and wouldn't start the scheme until they have researched everything (fair enough) but as I'd done all this it was a waste of time and I lost some paying work because you HAVE to attend the workshop (ironic!! lol)

so my benefits stopped and got £66 per week for 3 months, £33 for another 3 months (ended in January 2013), working tax credits of £47 per week which end in the end of this tax year. and any money from freelance work - I got lucky and my old company got a new contract and I've mostly just worked for them from home. wont last forever though... a few more months... after that I have no idea!! nice to work though.

The other enterprise scheme workshop was for accounts but as I had a degree (which had nothing to do with accounting/business etc) I wasn't eligible otherwise I've not heard a thing from the company running the scheme despite contacting them several times.

maybe that's a compliment - I didn't need any help?!? but the extra money was very nice... wouldn't have been a nightmare if I hadn't got the work from my old company though but you can still get Housing Benefits if you arn't earning enough - you fill out a form stating how much your earned (or not) and they will pay HB if you are not earning enough (I didn't have to do this thankfully).

The business planning was helpful even if I'd already done it myself... it's easy to avoid the really horrible bits when doing it on your own lol (profit and loss form!?!?!?! gargh)

see if you can do the workshop and not sign off benefits as everyone on the workshop I did were still on jobseekers etc (25 people) so it sounds like you can get help planning/research which will help you find out if you can find work yourself... then sign over to the scheme if it's viable!

merlin68

You just do the work and declare the income to JSA and they knock it of the payment. 17 hours work isn't enough to come of benifits for.