Provident Agent

Agent-007

Hi, I'm new here so I hope that this is the right place to post this thread. I had two jobs until recently, one which I have just lost and the second a part-time Provident Agent. I am now just left with this job and it's causing me financial hardship. I am paid on a commission only basis. Most weeks I earn around £70 a week, but other times it can be a bit more. My worst earnings I received was for £50 a week. I am paid on the basis of how much in loan repayments I collect. If a customer doesn't pay then I lose money. This means that my earnings are very unpredictable. I have since put in a claim for housing benefit but unfortunately they have taken the last 3 months earnings from my Provident commission and made a calculation on these to arrive at my predicted yearly earnings. This has amounted to me only getting just over half my rent paid by housing benefit. This is so wrong as like I said I can earn only £70 most weeks and surely I couldn't be expected to pay £54 out of £74 a week. This would leave me with hardly anything to pay for food and bills.

My question is, can I give up this job and claim benefits? It's not something that I have thought of lightly, since I do enjoy the job, but I can see no other way out of this financial hole.

Thanks in advance.

gallifreyseven

Hi Agent-007. Or should I call you James...?

I have since put in a claim for housing benefit but unfortunately they have taken the last 3 months earnings from my Provident commission and made a calculation on these to arrive at my predicted yearly earnings.

Councils should generally calculate based on the following pay frequencies:

five payments if you are paid weekly
three payments if you are paid every two weeks
two payments if you are paid monthly

Perhaps the Council weren't aware that your income varies every month? Or perhaps they use a slightly different calculation? It would be best to contact them and confirm they understand you are on variable income.

Some info from Shelter here:
england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/reporting_family_and_income_changes/housing_benefit_on_a_zero_hour_contract_or_variable_income

My question is, can I give up this job and claim benefits? It's not something that I have thought of lightly, since I do enjoy the job, but I can see no other way out of this financial hole.

This is a tricky one. Generally speaking, you can't give up a job without your Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) claim being sanctioned, although there are exceptions. This is one for a longer and more private discussion with someone knowledgable in the legislation.

However, as a self-employed person you can claim JSA as a top-up to your earnings. How much depends on personal and working circumstances, but as a rough idea, a single 40 year old man working 5 hours a week for £70 could claim £27.40 a week in JSA. This is in addition to most Council Tax benefit and full Housing Benefit.

There is a website you can use to calculate entitlement to a range of benefits - it's free, accurate and used by various Councils in their calculations. Best of all you can keep playing around with your answers to see what the differences would be. Just go to:

entitledto.co.uk

I hope that helps! Please let me know if you wish to discuss anything else.

Agent-007

Hi there, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately because I am classed as self employed they said they needed to see last 3 months commission statements. If I was an employee on weekly wages then they would only want to see 5 weekly payslips. When I received the housing benefits letter it states that everything they assume I will be earning over £72.40 a week, will have to go towards me paying rent and council tax with a disregard of £5. They have calculated that I would be earning £115 per week, which is all wrong. I'm also annoyed that even though they have come to this conclusion, they will not be making my first HB payment until nearly Christmas and by then I'll be 2 months in arrears with my rent and my landlord will not be happy

[Deleted User]

Sorry for your plight, just a thought, does the provi have any contingency for their own guys in times like these? (not something I'd wondered until today) x


Hope you find something - maybe try and get something like a short duration telesales job?

gallifreyseven

I've found some useful information for you:

From the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (Part 6, Section 2)

Average weekly earnings of self-employed earners
30.—(1) Where a claimant’s income consists of earnings from employment as a self-employed earner his average weekly earnings shall be estimated by reference to his earnings from that employment over such period as is appropriate in order that his average weekly earnings may be estimated accurately but the length of the period shall not in any case exceed a year.
(2) For the purposes of this regulation the claimant’s earnings shall be calculated in accordance with Section 4 of this Part.

There is no prescribed time period for requesting earnings evidence, as long as it's not more that a year. So they are within their rights to ask for 3 months. The only other suggestion I have is that you discuss with them the frequency at which you can request recalculations and whether they can base their calculations on expected income, or alternatively if they have a speedier way of getting recalculated payments to you?

Just on a related note, do you use your car when collecting payments? If so, do you discount the relevant running costs in your tax return? This would also be discounted from earnings for HB purposes.

Agent-007

Deleted%20User wrote: »

Sorry for your plight, just a thought, does the provi have any contingency for their own guys in times like these? (not something I'd wondered until today) x

Hi there, I'm afraid there isn't. All we get is commission based on our collections. There is no basic pay or paying us for any shortfalls. It really is just a job for someone who wants a second income.

gallifreyseven - I do use my car when collecting payments and housing benefit have allowed for this in their calculations.

Many thanks for all your comments. I will be ringing HB tomorrow morning. They were thoughtful in sending out their benefit decision letter so I'd receive it Saturday morning when their offices were closed and there was nothing I could do to get in touch. Been worried about this all weekend. Afraid to tell the landlord, we were both expecting I'd get full rent paid. I see another thread in the pipeline entitled 'Can my landlord evict me?'