Self employed and claiming for benifits

Carlwayne

Hello,

I am inquiring about my mother as she has just started her own cafe, but at the moment its going slow and just making enough money for the rent and food, she works 5 days a week and her husband does not work. Is there something that she can claim, she currently not claiming anything, i have told her to go Citizen advice but she is wondering what she can claim before decides to go as she don't like wasting there time.

Thanks in Advanced

Horseunderwater

Working tax credits - only needs to work a minimum of 24 hours as a couple, but will get more if she does 30 hours plus/week, which with running a caf! is most likely. If you have a Job centre near by you should be able to go along and pick up a claim pack. Or local council may keep some in stock. Initially it will work on last years income so you have to give them that, then when that award arrives you give them an estimated net profit that you will expect to earn from the caf! this year. Try and over estimate as that will then result in little or no overpayment. When I say net profit I mean after expenses are deducted from turnover, so effectively running costs.

Carlwayne

Thanks, at the minute after paying the rent on the cafe and food she is taking no net profit, so it will be very hard to estimate, also was working for last 10+ years and only started this 4 weeks ago so dont no how to estimate any future earnings.

Can she get help with housing and council benifit? she does not own but rent a private house

pmlindyloo

If your mother has no dependant children living at home then she will need to show that she is working 30 hours a week to qualify for x credits (shouldn't be difficult if she is full time in the caf!)

How old are your parents? Why doesn't your dad work? Any disabilities? Any savings? Any dependent children?

Sorry, need more information to help further.

Horseunderwater

Yes she should be able to claim for housing benefit for her local housing authority rate for a one bed home and will also be eligible for local council tax support - so she needs to apply for that too. Can be done on line now.
At the moment it will not matter about her net profit as such, but the award she gets based on last years income may prevent any actual payment, so what she needs to do is to wait for that award then tell them she has no net profit at present and then hopefully as the situation does improve, she will be able to get a better idea of what is happening with the Caf!. They may well write to her after a few months to see how it is going anyway. It would give her £90/week WTC.

Carlwayne

pmlindyloo wrote: »

If your mother has no dependant children living at home then she will need to show that she is working 30 hours a week to qualify for x credits (shouldn't be difficult if she is full time in the caf!)

How old are your parents? Why doesn't your dad work? Any disabilities? Any savings? Any dependent children?

Sorry, need more information to help further.

My mother is 50 this month and Father in-law is just out of work at the minute (looking for work) no disabilities , no savings (reason why struggling) and all her children are 25+ and not living with them

pmlindyloo

Your FIL(?) may be entitled to contribution based JSA (if he has paid his NI contribution as an employee for the past few years)

Starting up as sell employed and claiming HB and CT reduction can be tricky. Go to the council offices and ask to apply for HB and CT reduction. They may require weekly up dates as regards the profits - take their advice about this.

They can also look up their Local Housing Allowance for a one bed place on their local council website. This will be the maximum that they can claim. Anything over this they will have to pay themselves.

nicnak66

why does her husband not work? where does he get his income from?

Carlwayne

he has no income at the moment because he has not worked for a while, and when my mother has been working he could not get income based jsa because her earning to much, i not sure about if he can claim now, now that there is practically no income in to the house

mikey_bach

If your mother is working twenty four hours in the cafe then your father in law cant claim Income Based JSA.
In theory they could if it was under twenty four hours but a decison would have to be down on your mums self employment first by a DM

notanewuser

Does nobody else find it odd that the OP's mother is in a relationship with his/her father in law??!