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Francis_Rossi

marliepanda wrote: »

You're being extreme and ridiculous.

You probably could do it once a year, but then you could be faced with a large overpayment if you underestimated your income.

Base it on last tax year and you'll no doubt be fairly accurate, just be sensible, you get a tonne of work, report it, or you may end up being overpaid a tonne.

Ok, at last a pertinent answer.

When you say do it once a year, do you mean that's just an option? I don't mind doing it more than once a year, just not constantly. I read somewhere that the council pay you based on what you've earned minus tax and nat ins (in other words they calculate your net income). But I don't know how accurate that is.

CKhalvashi

Francis_Rossi wrote: »

I guess the main thing I want to know is will I have to keep contacting them to keep them up to date with my income? It's kind of depressing to think that I'd have to do that. I'd like to think that I could live my life without having to constantly have the council on my mind. So what I really want to know is, is it a quick and easy procedure, or a pain in the !!!?

Once a month should be often enough, just as long as they're getting a good enough idea and you're not building up substantial overpayments.

Theoretically, it can be done every year, but this carries risk of OP's accruing that you can't pay back.

CK

Francis_Rossi

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Once a month should be often enough, just as long as they're getting a good enough idea and you're not building up substantial overpayments.

Theoretically, it can be done every year, but this carries risk of OP's accruing that you can't pay back.

CK

Ok that sounds much better than camping outside the council office and not being able to go on holiday ever.

Do you get a choice? Can you literally just do it whenever if you really want or do they insist on any particular timeframe? Do they chase you up arbitrarily or do they generally leave you alone? Ideally I would be happy with somewhere inbetween every 1-6 months.

Tombola591

I used to claim housing and council tax benefit when I started up as self-employed, and my income varied from week to week.

I can't remember exactly how often I updated them but it certainly wasn't as often as every week.

I don't think it was even as frequent as once a month. I think it was every 2 or 3 months. And although I can't remember, I think it was up to me to update them. I don't think they'd even have time to chase you every month.

You won't really want to leave it too long - a year, for example, because as others here have pointed out, you don't want to end up having to repay an overpayment.

I don't know if things have changed since I was claiming - but it really wasn't that difficult. They calculated an average income based on the past few months (I showed them bank statements as I hadn't yet completed a tax return and didn't have any accounts yet).

CKhalvashi

Francis_Rossi wrote: »

Ok that sounds much better than camping outside the council office and not being able to go on holiday ever.

Do you get a choice? Can you literally just do it whenever if you really want or do they insist on any particular timeframe? Do they chase you up arbitrarily or do they generally leave you alone? Ideally I would be happy with somewhere inbetween every 1-6 months.

My council leave many SE claimants alone as long as they're getting several reports throughout the year.

My specialist area is homelessness/post-homeless support, but there is a benefit officer here who will be able to give a more definite answer to this for you.

CK

Francis_Rossi

Tombola591 wrote: »

I used to claim housing and council tax benefit when I started up as self-employed, and my income varied from week to week.

I can't remember exactly how often I updated them but it certainly wasn't as often as every week.

I don't think it was even as frequent as once a month. I think it was every 2 or 3 months. And although I can't remember, I think it was up to me to update them. I don't think they'd even have time to chase you every month.

You won't really want to leave it too long - a year, for example, because as others here have pointed out, you don't want to end up having to repay an overpayment.

I don't know if things have changed since I was claiming - but it really wasn't that difficult. They calculated an average income based on the past few months (I showed them bank statements as I hadn't yet completed a tax return and didn't have any accounts yet).

Thanks. That's excellent.

I really don't mind doing it once in a while and I'm happy to do it and get it out of the way, and I certainly wouldn't want to leave it for the whole tax year. Every 2 or 3 months I'd be happy with. I just hate the idea of having to "report to my masters" even while trying to better myself. The thought of that makes me sick. And that's the main thing that I was concerned about, but from the sounds of it, it's alright, not too bad.

So let me see if I've got this right. Let's say that I decide to do it every 4 weeks.

Week 1 : I earn say £57
Week 2: I earn £90
Week 3 : I earn £110
Week 4 : I earn £125

Total = £382 gross.

They then divide it by 4, which is £95.50

They calculate an average weekly net income from that, and pay me HB and CTxBen based on whatever figure that ends up being.

Then after that I decide to tell them after say 6 weeks, and they just do the same again with 6 weeks of income.

Is that fairly accurate, in terms of what they do? Also, do I just have to show them bank statements?

And when you mention overpayment, are you talking about HB and CTxBen or tax? That's probably a stupid question but I just want to be sure.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Francis_Rossi wrote: »

I guess the main thing I want to know is will I have to keep contacting them to keep them up to date with my income? It's kind of depressing to think that I'd have to do that. I'd like to think that I could live my life without having to constantly have the council on my mind. So what I really want to know is, is it a quick and easy procedure, or a pain in the !!!?

You poor thing.

You should be given bucket loads of taxpayers cash with no questions asked you poor poppit.

It works like this for the newly self employed:-

Commence work and give a prediction of your assumed self employed income - this figure will be used for the next 13 weeks.

After 13 weeks you provide 13 weeks self employed income and expenditure so a more accurate income can be used.

After 26 weeks your trading figures for the past 6 months are used to calculate your next 3 months benefit entitlement.

After 39 weeks your trading figures for the last 9 months are used.

After trading for 52 weeks your last years self employed figures are used to calculate the coming years benefit entitlement.

Once a year you provide your last full years self employed accounts so your coming years benefit entitlement can be used.

CKhalvashi

HBO, I don't think that Francis is wanting to be on benefits, more seeing it as a short-term need and not knowing how it works.

OP, HBO works in this department, I don't, so his explanation will be the correct one. No harm in letting them know more frequently, though.

CK

Tombola591

Francis_Rossi wrote: »

Thanks. That's excellent.

I really don't mind doing it once in a while and I'm happy to do it and get it out of the way, and I certainly wouldn't want to leave it for the whole tax year. Every 2 or 3 months I'd be happy with. I just hate the idea of having to "report to my masters" even while trying to better myself. The thought of that makes me sick. And that's the main thing that I was concerned about, but from the sounds of it, it's alright, not too bad.

So let me see if I've got this right. Let's say that I decide to do it every 4 weeks.

Week 1 : I earn say £57
Week 2: I earn £90
Week 3 : I earn £110
Week 4 : I earn £125

Total = £382 gross.

They then divide it by 4, which is £95.50

They calculate an average weekly net income from that, and pay me HB and CTxBen based on whatever figure that ends up being.

Then after that I decide to tell them after say 6 weeks, and they just do the same again with 6 weeks of income.

Is that fairly accurate, in terms of what they do? Also, do I just have to show them bank statements?

And when you mention overpayment, are you talking about HB and CTxBen or tax? That's probably a stupid question but I just want to be sure.

I'm sorry - I really can't remember the exact details. It was about 10 years ago. But I think they did do what you say, i.e. if you provide them with 4 weeks income, they add it up and then divide by 4.

The updating more regularly than once a year is really more for you than for them. Otherwise you could end up with an overpayment. That's nothing to do with tax. It's for housing and council tax benefit. An overpayment would occur for example if you provide them with one month's income and they then give you benefit based on that amount. If you start earning much more than that and are then entitled to less benefit (or none), you'll then owe them the money you've been receiving.

I hope that makes sense - I'm tired now!

You probably don't need to update them even as much as every 6 weeks. Perhaps every 4 or 6 months. And then only if your income is still changing a lot. If you have a fairly stable income (a difference of a few pounds from week to week won't make a huge difference), you won't really need to contact them.

Updating them is mainly to ensure you're not receiving too much benefit (which would be an overpayment that you'd have to pay back).

Also, bear in mind that updating them could mean you receive more money. Perhaps your income goes down and you might then be entitled to more.

Regarding what to show them. Again I can't remember exactly but I think I showed them bank statements and invoices.

Francis_Rossi

Thanks, Tombola. Just one more quick question before you have your nightcap. If they overpay you, can't they just underpay you next time?