Self-employed, about to become out of work

NewUserHere

Tomorrow may be my last day working my SE job due to a c*ck up with the licensing authority. Could be 1 week, could be 1 month, I just don't know. Not that I made much money, worked out I was making about £3-£4/hr for my 50hrs work!

I understand I am not entitled to CB JSA because my SE status (don't pay class 1 NI) but can claim Income Based JSA.... is this right?

Can I undertake some low-income, PT SE work to top up this until I can find a new FT job? I'm talking a 2-3hr/day job making me about £15/day.

Never ever had to ask the state to help me, so all pointers appreciate. But i'm exhausted and a little fed up and just want to use this situation to try find PAYE work now!

jacques_chirac

You can claim IB JSA, assuming you do not have capital over £16,000 or any other household income (do you have a partner that works?).

You can work up to 16 hours a week whilst claiming, but anything over £5 will be deducted from your JSA entitlement.

Was the error yours? If so, the JCP may ask why your work has ended. If they deem you have become unemployed by your own act, your claim may be sanctioned.

NewUserHere

My partner is on maternity leave (£130pw) which ends in 6 weeks (she'll earn about the same when she returns.

Certainly no capital over £16k.

I'm licensed by the local authority, never received the renewal forms so when I contacted them about 5 weeks before renewal was due they re-sent forms out. Apparently they say give in application 6 weeks before to allow plentiful time for checks (mainly being DVLA) to take place. Hence I could be out of work for a week or a month if it gets lost in the post or something (which i'm advised this has possibly happened as they usually receive them much quicker than is taking - in which case i'd have to start the process again, so up to 6 more weeks)

jacques_chirac

Your partner's income is too high for you to qualify for IB JSA You can sign on to get your NI Credits paid, but you will not receive payment.

You may be eligible for help with housing costs and council tax. Do you rent or have a mortgage? Also, have you claimed child tax credits?

NewUserHere

jacques_chirac wrote: »

Your partner's income is too high for you to qualify for IB JSA You can sign on to get your NI Credits paid, but you will not receive payment.

You may be eligible for help with housing costs and council tax. Do you rent or have a mortgage? Also, have you claimed child tax credits?

Really, £520p.m too much? Do you know what the threshold is?

We rent and get CTC, about £30p.w.

NewUserHere

Does anybody know what the threshold is?

Within the last 2 years I did do about 8 months work under PAYE - would class 1 contributions from this period be sufficient?

ADD:

income-based JSA. You might get this type of JSA if your income and savings are low enough. There is no time limit on receiving this. You do not need to have paid any national insurance contributions. But if you have a partner they must either not be working, or working fewer than 24 hours a week.

She's on maternity leave so works 0 hours at present, when she goes back she will be working about 20 hours per week.

So how would I answer the question of how many hours per week she works?

NewUserHere

jacques_chirac wrote: »

You can claim IB JSA, assuming you do not have capital over £16,000 or any other household income (do you have a partner that works?).

You can work up to 16 hours a week whilst claiming, but anything over £5 will be deducted from your JSA entitlement.

Was the error yours? If so, the JCP may ask why your work has ended. If they deem you have become unemployed by your own act, your claim may be sanctioned.

Error mine or not, if i'm earning about £3 per hour, surely they'd accept this as a reason to leave the job as I would effectively being going 'bust' not being able to pay myself a wage?

notanewuser

NewUserHere wrote: »

Does anybody know what the threshold is?

Within the last 2 years I did do about 8 months work under PAYE - would class 1 contributions from this period be sufficient?

No, they wouldn't. You need 2 full years of contributions in 2011/12 and 2010/11 to claim conts based benefits.

The threshold for income based is £105 per week.

NewUserHere

Wow - so we're really not able to get any type of JSA.

There seems to be a real injustice here! I'm starting to wonder why I pay class 2 & 4 NI and why I bother paying tax if in my time of need there is no kind of help - whilst somebody under PAYE can!

notanewuser

NewUserHere wrote: »

Wow - so we're really not able to get any type of JSA.

There seems to be a real injustice here! I'm starting to wonder why I pay class 2 & 4 NI and why I bother paying tax if in my time of need there is no kind of help - whilst somebody under PAYE can!

Somebody under PAYE can't earn £3-4 an hour and pay a lot more NI than you do. Nor can they offset as many expenses off against tax. It's swings and roundabouts.

If your OH is on paid maternity leave then she is considered to be employed and working as many hours as she was before. If you won't be working could she return full time?

arcon5

notanewuser wrote: »

Somebody under PAYE can't earn £3-4 an hour and pay a lot more NI than you do. Nor can they offset as many expenses off against tax. It's swings and roundabouts.

For examples sake, say op makes £10k per annum.

He pays £380 is class 2 & 4.

Under PAYE the employee would pay £280. Whereas the employer would pay a further £300.

So the SE individual is actually paying more NICs from their real wage.

And only business expenses can be offset against tax so not really a major advantage to op. Except to earn the same in ops case, you'd have to work an extra 15 ish hours per week.