Holiday letting and housing benefit

marliepanda

nannytone wrote: »

iy is a hobby rather than a business.
there is no way that 1 property will pay enough income to provide a living wage, and 'work' wise would take up more than an hour a week

Luckily the DWP do not see it like that. (especially as the OP IS hoping to live off the income, so clearly they have researched it as a viable business option...)

Why should someone have 40k in capital they are using to create an income AND get HB?

BigAunty

nannytone wrote: »

iy is a hobby rather than a business.
there is no way that 1 property will pay enough income to provide a living wage, and 'work' wise would take up more than an hour a week

No, the letting of property is a commercial business and both the capital and income is formally considered to be so by both the HMRC and the benefits authority.

Now if it is generating low profits, it could be informally considered to be a 'hobby' or simply as a bad business but the reality is that it is a commercial activity.

Low income doesn't automatically transform it into a hobby!

The reverse argument has often been made by tax credit/HB claimants on this forum - that their hobbies are real businesses, albeit with low incomes, therefore they should receive benefits from the state. We have seen a stream of non or low profit 'businesses' here from graphic designers, cake makers, photographers, web designers, ebay sellers and so on who are keen to state that what some people may consider to be their personal interests are in fact, legitimate businesses.