Term time, self employed and WTC....possible?

[Deleted User]

I have recently started my own self employed cleaning and ironing business, its going very well, I am claiming WTC and making more than the minimum wage each week, except my first week due to start up costs.

Having seriously struggling to juggle these summer holidays (just about got it covered now), I don't really want to be dreading every school holiday and just passing my children around spending 1 or 2 days a week with them.

As long as its financially viable (I think it will be), by January would I be able to inform WTC that I am now working term time only and would I still get WTC during the school hols? I am prepared to not get it, but thought I would ask.

I wondered if this type of WTC/term time thing was only available to those on contracts i.e. teachers/education/school cleaners etc when the work place isn't open in school holidays.

Any advice would be amazing please. I don't want my children's childhood passing me by in a daze. Once they are in secondary school maybe I could reconsider things. I am hoping to call tax credits on monday to clarify my question, but on previous occassions I have found it difficult to get through.

Many thanks,
Bay

WantToBeSE

Hi Bay.
I am not sure of the answer, but i am planning to start up a reasonably flex term time only cleaning business too. I am planning on working as many hours as i can during term time, and then only about 12 hours a week in the half terms and summer holidays.
My children are 13 and 9 though, so i don't havetoo much of a problem as they'll be old enough by next summer holidays.
Are you a single parent or part of a couple?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

They would calculate your term time work and divide by 52 weeks to get a yearly average - they will do the same with hours worked - so if you work 40 hours per week during term time only they would times 40 hours by 39 weeks and divide by 52 to get an average working hours per week of 30. I have never heard of tax credits calculating self employed income any other way - please correct me if I am wrong.

[Deleted User]

WantToBeSE wrote: »

Hi Bay.
I am not sure of the answer, but i am planning to start up a reasonably flex term time only cleaning business too. I am planning on working as many hours as i can during term time, and then only about 12 hours a week in the half terms and summer holidays.
My children are 13 and 9 though, so i don't havetoo much of a problem as they'll be old enough by next summer holidays.
Are you a single parent or part of a couple?

Good luck with your venture, tricky isn't it.

Yes I am a single parent, which is why i am considering this.

[Deleted User]

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

They would calculate your term time work and divide by 52 weeks to get a yearly average - they will do the same with hours worked - so if you work 40 hours per week during term time only they would times 40 hours by 39 weeks and divide by 52 to get an average working hours per week of 30. I have never heard of tax credits calculating self employed income any other way - please correct me if I am wrong.

I have no idea of how they calculate tax credits, so your more informed that me. I wondered if it would be different for self employed people as your income is more variable, than that of a permanent contract. Plus as self employed I assume I would have to work additional hours to make up for those lost with sick children?

FBaby

Regardless of whether you can still claim WTC and that you don't want the hassle of sorting childcare and want to spend all your time with the kids, have you thought about the effect on your business? I personally wouldn't be impressed if my cleaner or iron lady (who I don't have!) told me she could do any of it every single school holidays. I would be looking for another one.

zagfles

Not sure if it answers your question but have a read of what the technical manual says on the subject:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/tctmanual/TCTM02450.htm

azmilligan71

I am doing excactly the same thing starting in August due to bing single parent with three kids I still want to earn a living but without worrying about childcare etc etc.....after loads of phonecalls to various helplines and wftc and a very helpful person 'ice queen' on here I finally got some answers......tax credits say that as a term time self employed person as long as you are doing 16 hrs minimum per week you will get full entitlement and the 'term time' part you......as long as you are not 'out of work' for longer than a 4 weeks period you are still able toto claim as normal however the summer holidays because it is longer than 4 weeks you can just phone them at start of holidays and stopping claiming for holiday then at end of school hols phone them again to restart claim.....or ensure you work part of the summer holidays so you are not 'out of work' for more than the 4 week period which is what i intend to do. I was told that they are only really interested in your annual net profit figure to base your entitlement on, HOWEVER they may at anytime do a compliance check to make sure you are doing the doing the required 16 hours minimum so as long as you keep records of all hours especially the summer holiday part as for housing benefit etc not sure but think as a self employed person it would be your annual net profit they need not hours......good luck hope it works for you..................

Deleted_User wrote: »

I have recently started my own self employed cleaning and ironing business, its going very well, I am claiming WTC and making more than the minimum wage each week, except my first week due to start up costs.

Having seriously struggling to juggle these summer holidays (just about got it covered now), I don't really want to be dreading every school holiday and just passing my children around spending 1 or 2 days a week with them.

As long as its financially viable (I think it will be), by January would I be able to inform WTC that I am now working term time only and would I still get WTC during the school hols? I am doing the required 16 hours minimum so as long as you keep records of all hours especially the summer holiday part as for housing benefit etc not sure but think as a self employed person it would be your annual net profit they need not hours......good luck hope it works for you..................


Any advice would be amazing please. I don't want my children's childhood passing me by in a daze. Once they are in secondary school maybe I could reconsider things. I am hoping to call tax credits on monday to clarify my question, but on previous occassions I have found it difficult to get through.

Many thanks,
Bay

SHIRAZ

I do this kind of work at present and can't understand how it wold be viable to take so much time off!! my customers would also look else where if I was away from work for several weeks at a time, makes very little sense to me to do this and to be honest don't believe it's a genuine business but a dodge of some sort if you can be a single parent, earn close to minimum wage but afford to be off work for many weeks of the year...

Dovah_diva

SHIRAZ wrote: »

I do this kind of work at present and can't understand how it wold be viable to take so much time off!! my customers would also look else where if I was away from work for several weeks at a time, makes very little sense to me to do this and to be honest don't believe it's a genuine business but a dodge of some sort if you can be a single parent, earn close to minimum wage but afford to be off work for many weeks of the year...

Agreed. If I were paying someone to clean and iron for me, I want it done all year round - taking six weeks off during the summer means I am taking my business elsewhere.

There are a lot of these 'small business' ideas floating around now - especially since the rules changes re JSA. I am not entirely sure they are all genuine.

zagfles

Dovah_diva wrote: »

Agreed. If I were paying someone to clean and iron for me, I want it done all year round - taking six weeks off during the summer means I am taking my business elsewhere.

There are a lot of these 'small business' ideas floating around now - especially since the rules changes re JSA. I am not entirely sure they are all genuine.

Depends who the customers are, eg if it's term-time workers such as teachers it might suit them, as they'd either be away in the school holidays, or at home with more time to do ironing/cleaning etc.