Tax Credits Stopped for 5 Weeks

Amanda65

hollyh wrote: »

My partner has been working pretty much full time, sometimes seven days a week making money all year until just before Christmas when it all went dead.

We are both looking for different work.

Sounds like a good plan but does he not have any savings from working for the whole year to help tide you over?

Might not be feasible due to where he was living before but would it be sensible for him to delay his moving in until you are on a surer financial footing and able to cope with a possible loss of benefits for a few weeks?

claire16c

hollyh wrote: »

The reason I continue is because it does make a small amount if money and this has been growing all the time. Maybe I'm living in hope that it'll all come good.

My partner has been working pretty much full time, sometimes seven days a week making money all year until just before Christmas when it all went dead.

We are both looking for different work.

I could make a small amount of money selling my old rubbish on eBay but it doesn't make it a job or business.

I think temping is a good idea as previously said you often get paid weekly. Carry on your business in your spare time then it doesn't matter so much if it doesn't work out.

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

I've never claimed anything and I didn't grow up in the UK so I don't understand a lot about tax credits/benefits but I thought that tax credits were like a refund of some of the tax you had paid via PAYE. If you aren't drawing a salary and paying the tax in the first place how can you get tax credits?

That's what I thought until I came on here. It seems to be more like just giving money out.

paulineb_2

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

I've never claimed anything and I didn't grow up in the UK so I don't understand a lot about tax credits/benefits but I thought that tax credits were like a refund of some of the tax you had paid via PAYE. If you aren't drawing a salary and paying the tax in the first place how can you get tax credits?

They arent a refund of tax you have paid via PAYE. Lots of people in the UK on low incomes are able to claim working tax credits.

paulineb_2

Im a freelance fitness instructor and I teach fitness classes in the local area I live in. My income varies and has done over the years Ive been teaching due to different circumstances, how much gym work Ive got. The first year I was teaching I was teaching 11 hours a week in a gym of my own classes and doing cover and I averaged about 660 pounds a month at that time and I wasnt getting any kind of housing benefit then as the housing benefit department can sometimes find it difficult to work out rebates for self employed people.

I then lost a couple of classes due to a centre closure and it was getting to the point where as I was paying full rent and council tax that it was difficult to live on what I was earning as my income had reduced, at that point I was offered some work for a local gym, salaried and not freelance so I took that, but it was only 13 hours a week. Tried everything I could to get a second job and couldnt and then started teaching freelance again last February.

Its taken me a year to start making consistent profit. As lots of factors can affect income, weather, particularly snow can have people not teaching for 4-5 weeks at a time. Hot weather, peoples motivation can dip, January sees people coming out with good intentions and wanting to get fit. I have a cheaper hall hire now, half the cost of the council hall I was hiring last year and my classes are building.
But I still dont earn 200 pounds a week. My plan is to do something else not connected with teaching classes, Im also looking to finish the one qualification I dont have and get some casual/sessional work in a local gym. Some people I know make in a week what I make in a month, but lots of factors can affect that. I know people who are the only instructor in their area and thats teaching anything, its not like that where I am.

The reality for me would be, having spent around 18 months of the last 4 years on the dole, Id end up back there. I take less out in working tax credits than I would if I were on the dole. And if people do think your working tax credits should relate to what you paid in tax over the years, I paid tax for a long time when I worked full time.

You get criticised if you do and criticised if you dont. HMRC actually give guidance as to what the 30 hours can consist of when you are claiming working tax credits. If things dont work out for me long term then thats the way it is, but Id rather have tried than do nothing, knowing how soul destroying it is being on JSA.

Advising the OP to look for work isnt bad advice, Im just not sure that if someone doesnt make 200 quid a week every week, they should give it up as a bad job.

Amanda65

paulineb wrote: »

Im a freelance fitness instructor and I teach fitness classes in the local area I live in. My income varies and has done over the years Ive been teaching due to different circumstances, how much gym work Ive got. The first year I was teaching I was teaching 11 hours a week in a gym of my own classes and doing cover and I averaged about 660 pounds a month at that time and I wasnt getting any kind of housing benefit then as the housing benefit department can sometimes find it difficult to work out rebates for self employed people.

I then lost a couple of classes due to a centre closure and it was getting to the point where as I was paying full rent and council tax that it was difficult to live on what I was earning as my income had reduced, at that point I was offered some work for a local gym, salaried and not freelance so I took that, but it was only 13 hours a week. Tried everything I could to get a second job and couldnt and then started teaching freelance again last February.

Its taken me a year to start making consistent profit. As lots of factors can affect income, weather, particularly snow can have people not teaching for 4-5 weeks at a time. Hot weather, peoples motivation can dip, January sees people coming out with good intentions and wanting to get fit. I have a cheaper hall hire now, half the cost of the council hall I was hiring last year and my classes are building.
But I still dont earn 200 pounds a week. My plan is to do something else not connected with teaching classes, Im also looking to finish the one qualification I dont have and get some casual/sessional work in a local gym. Some people I know make in a week what I make in a month, but lots of factors can affect that. I know people who are the only instructor in their area and thats teaching anything, its not like that where I am.

The reality for me would be, having spent around 18 months of the last 4 years on the dole, Id end up back there. I take less out in working tax credits than I would if I were on the dole. And if people do think your working tax credits should relate to what you paid in tax over the years, I paid tax for a long time when I worked full time.

You get criticised if you do and criticised if you dont. HMRC actually give guidance as to what the 30 hours can consist of when you are claiming working tax credits. If things dont work out for me long term then thats the way it is, but Id rather have tried than do nothing, knowing how soul destroying it is being on JSA.

Advising the OP to look for work isnt bad advice, Im just not sure that if someone doesnt make 200 quid a week every week, they should give it up as a bad job.

As a class goer who can be put off quite easily by anything (good weather, bad weather, sore big toe :rotfl:) I can sympathise with you working as a freelance fitness instructor. However presumably you can 'prove' the bulk of your hours by hall / gym bookings etc etc. I was curious as to how someone who, as far as I can tell from OP's information, sells stuff on Ebay 'proves' she works 30 hours a week when she isn't earning enough to draw a livable salary.

paulineb_2

Im just quoting this off the top of my head but things like admin hours count, for me stuff like advertising where Im out and about putting flyers out, some days Ive been out for 5 hours at a time delivering leaflets, its not just the contact time with participants that counts as far as Im concerned, they do allow the time you do the books, any publicity, if someone had a job where they met with clients, that time would count, if you go to the working tax credit part of the HMRC webpage, it details what the 30 hours can be made up of.

paulineb_2

If you're self-employed

Put down the number of hours you normally spend working in your business, either on work billed to the client or related activity, for example:

• trips to wholesalers and retailers
• visits to potential clients
• time spent on advertising
• cleaning the business premises
• cleaning a vehicle used as part of the business, for example a taxi
• book-keeping
• research work

If you work from home, include time spent travelling to see customers.
If you have only just become self-employed, use the number of hours you normally expect to work in a week.

Mrs_Imp

I know this is too late for the OP now, but should anyone else be reading this who wants to be self-employed......

Make sure you are putting enough money aside each month to cover sickness, holiday, and quiet periods. Try for at least 10% of your monthly wage, until you have enough to cover you for several months. 6 months would be my ideal safety net.

Amanda65

paulineb wrote: »

Im just quoting this off the top of my head but things like admin hours count, for me stuff like advertising where Im out and about putting flyers out, some days Ive been out for 5 hours at a time delivering leaflets, its not just the contact time with participants that counts as far as Im concerned, they do allow the time you do the books, any publicity, if someone had a job where they met with clients, that time would count, if you go to the working tax credit part of the HMRC webpage, it details what the 30 hours can be made up of.

I realise that it is not just 'teaching' time and that running a business is so much more than that (been there, doen that many moons ag before tax credits and the like) but how do you PROVE you've worked those hours and not sat in front of Jeremy Kyle? I can see how tax credits work for the employed but surely (and casting no aspertions on anyone here) the system is open to abuse for the self-employed?

Sorry - going off topic here

paulineb_2

Amanda65 wrote: »

I realise that it is not just 'teaching' time and that running a business is so much more than that (been there, doen that many moons ag before tax credits and the like) but how do you PROVE you've worked those hours and not sat in front of Jeremy Kyle? I can see how tax credits work for the employed but surely (and casting no aspertions on anyone here) the system is open to abuse for the self-employed?

Sorry - going off topic here

It probably is open to abuse, but to be honest, it only affects a certain amount of people who claim working tax credit, many people who run a business dont claim WTC because their income is too high. HMRC can spot check people at any time, you also have to give accurate financial information to the tax credits people.

Theres no way they can know what everyone is doing at any given time.

You'll get people who dont look for work while they are claiming JSA and just write a lot of guff on their form, its much the same thing, they trust you to do it.

When I was signing on around 4 years ago I had to fill in a booklet and I was also after 6 months asked to evidence by way of letter any interviews I had been for. The next time which was around two years ago I asked would I be asked to show all that again, the adviser said no. And things may have got stricter again as Im aware they are sanctioning more people these days, but even the DWP and WTC have to trust people that are doing what they are saying they are doing and really for the sake of 52 quid a week which is what I get would I want to be committing fraud?

Its the same as doing your tax return, you can be spot checked but a lot of people arent. I also know of people who much the same job I do but dont declare anything to the Inland Revenue, the taxman doesnt know they are making money. Some people are honest and some people are less honest in a few aspects of life I suppose.