self employment and benefit ?

the_painter_2

Just a quick question, later this year im going self employed but am starting to worry now about income, would you get any benefits to top up your income whilst the buisness gets going? I have two children under 7 and need to keep food on the table.

I know employed people get working tax credits but is there something like self employed tax credits? and would you get it as a start up.

Caz3121

Are you single or in a couple?
How many hours a week do you plan to be working?

xylophone

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/claiming/income-hours/self-employed-income.htm

pmlindyloo

Caz3121 wrote: »

Are you single or in a couple?
How many hours a week do you plan to be working?

At the moment...........
If you are single with children then the minimum number of hours that you would be expected to work to claim working tax credit is 16 hrs each week. If you are a couple with children then it is 24 hrs between you with one doing at least 16 hrs.

However, (and not wishing to put you off) when Universal Credit comes in the self employed are going to be quite rigorously checked. Without going into all the details a read of this link covers it quite well:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/192667/universal-credit-toolkit-quick-guide-self-employment.pdf

The scrutiny has mainly come about because some self employed people have been claiming working tax credit and not treating their self employment as a proper job, but relying on the tax credits to 'make up' their income.

the_painter_2

Caz3121 wrote: »

Are you single or in a couple?
How many hours a week do you plan to be working?

As many as possible i was thinking about a safety net hopefully never needed.