Housing Benefit Self Employed

dktreesea

BIGBRO wrote: »

[QUOTE Having said that who on earth would not claim their tax credits if they knew they were entitled to them? [QUOTE

Because the money that you claim just gets paid straight back, it get taken off your housing benefit, and it works out exactly the same, if you get 52.00 WTC it works out around 37.00 more you have to pay on rent and 15.00 on council tax.... so what it the point, I just don't see why someone would want to go through all of that hassle. :mad:

That may not be the case. There's an income disregard when they calculated your housing benefit. So it may not be a one to one swap.

Plus if you were earning so little you didn't earn something called the applicable amount (so 100% of your housing costs or the LHA, whichever is lower, would be paid, if in private rental accommodation), you could still be in a position where, even if you claimed WTC, you would still be under the applicable amount.

dktreesea

Here's a more specific example. Say you have a family, and the applicable amount is £240 a week. Say your income disregard is £60 a week (i.e. both parents working 30 or more hours a week in the business, plus child benefit also disregarded). Say, in your business, you make £80 profit a week, plus you get £130 a week CTC. So altogether £210 a week. The income disregard is £60 a week, so, for housing benefit purposes your income is assessed at £150 a week, so you get all your rent paid. Say WTC works out at around £40 a week. Even adding this in, at £190 a week, you would still get all of your housing costs paid because you would still be under the applicable amount.

This council explains this better than I can
http://www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/english/advice/benefits/pages/income.aspx

Housing_Benefit_Officer

BIGBRO wrote: »

What ever, it only it was that easy, you have to tell them the last time you went the toilet :rotfl:

I have just looked through the various Tax Credit application/renewal forms and nowhere does it ask about going to the toilet? Could you point to which part of the form they ask this question as I am confused :S