Self-Employed and Want to go FT

ThreeMarks

I have been self-employed as a freelance software engineer for just less than a year. To cut a long story short, I am not entitled to NEA.

I am also currently claiming JSA and completely satisfy the requirements of my agreement, which my advisor states every fortnight. And, even though I stress over it every signing-day, he assures me that I am doing enough to satisfy my claim.

I am (of course) working less than 16 hours, but would like to become full-time and come off JSA. I am finding it difficult to juggle my job applications and my work, both actual paid work and the administration etc.

I would like to remain on JSA as a cushion, so that I can top up my earnings, even though I always pay my NI 2 contributions myself as I am registered with HMRC as a sole-trader.

I have been declaring hours worked and money earned at my signing days. The problem is, the freelance work is still fragmented and not quite stable as I'd like.

I want to be able to work longer than 16 hours a week but JSA does not allow this. But 16 hours a week is not long enough in a week to do what I can as many self-employed will tell you.

Just before I started as self-employed a while back, I contacted HMRC to find out whether I can apply for WTC. They essentially said no back then because thye wanted declarations of hours worked and asked for proof of income.

Things have moved on since then however and I am earning a good pay check when I do freelance work. But as i stated, I haven't managed to secure a a few months of work in my diary yet.

Can someone advise me as the best course of action.

ThreeMarks

I was full time employed from June 2013 to Feb 2014 and my annual salary was £28K until I was made redundant.

I claimed JSA because there are few jobs of that kind in my area, and I am reluctant to relocate because I have a mental health issues and need my support group (family / friends).

That's the thing. Currently I am not working more than 30 hours a week because of the JSA limit of 16.

If I decided to come off JSA, I could work 30 hours a week. But being freelance, it's likely that it would be sporadic. I could work 40+ hours some weeks and none the next. But I could probably average it at 30 hours if I pushed it.

I am unlikely to get WTC because of how much I earned last year.