part time job (20h) and self-employed, WTC?

HeShouWu

Hi,

I work 20h a week (contract, yearly income around 8000 £), 4h each day, due to medical condition (not disability) and I think about self-employment 10h (probably more) a week, more of a hobby, where I'll sell something here and there. I'm renting a room, lodger type, where rent is 200£ a month.

My question is if I am entitled to any benefits? I'm thinking about WTC but have no idea how it works with part time and self employment. If you have any experience please share it with me.

Many thanks!

HeShouWu

Thanks for your reply, but by hobby I meant that the freelance activity will be profit based off course, but it is something what I like to do, something I enjoy doing. Sorry for the misconception.

BigAunty

In the past, the self employed could cruise along for many years with a valid entitlement to tax credits, even if they were relatively profitless hobbies, as the criteria was looser and amounted to not much more than having a low income and 'being busy for x hours per week'.

However, the white paper for the future Universal Credit noted the govt concern about how heavily and long-term dependent the self employed were on benefits.

In April this year, it got tightened up. See if you can find the new rules on the HMRC website, I'm having trouble copying URLs, sorry.

NYM

Self Employed - Guidance on Tax Credits...

Have a read through that website, it might help to clarify things a little

leveller2911

BigAunty wrote: »

In the past, the self employed could cruise along for many years with a valid entitlement to tax credits, even if they were relatively profitless hobbies, as the criteria was looser and amounted to not much more than having a low income and 'being busy for x hours per week'.

However, the white paper for the future Universal Credit noted the govt concern about how heavily and long-term dependent the self employed were on benefits.

In April this year, it got tightened up. See if you can find the new rules on the HMRC website, I'm having trouble copying URLs, sorry.

Steady on Aunty, many self employed people don't claim any benefits ,work more hours than most people and are driven in wanting their business to succeed. Every single self employed person I have worked with over the years were/are grafters and not part time Avon,Betterware,dog walkers who did as little as possible to maximise benefit entitlement. these cahncers have tarnished the self employed small businesses that are crucial to the country.

I'm sure you know that but the above does look a bit like tarnishing us all with the same brush, most of us are genuine and pay our way..:D

PasturesNew

leveller2911 wrote: »

I'm sure you know that but the above does look a bit like tarnishing us all with the same brush, most of us are genuine and pay our way..:D

Yes, but while those people were grafting and struggling .... others, including Avon ladies and Etsy twee stuff sellers, were just blagging it because somebody tipped them off that they could work the system

They also "queered the pitch" for those genuine SE workers, by flooding the markets as they didn't need to make a profit.

Glad it's changing.

BigAunty

leveller2911 wrote: »

Steady on Aunty, many self employed people don't claim any benefits ,work more hours than most people and are driven in wanting their business to succeed

I wish I could find the stats I came across in the past which showed the number of SE WTC claimants - it was a large number.

Also, I came across stats that showed a big drop off in annual income for the self employed over time which probably corresponded with the onboarding of the hobby/micro businesses.

Sorry to be so vague, wish I could find that info now. I also wish that the UC whitepaper, that criticised the long-term benefit dependency of the SE, actually bothered to come up with figures to support it, such as the percentage that always claimed WTC since the inception of their businesses, average annual profit per WTC claimant, average household claim for all benefits by SE households or something like that.

I think there were a number of reasons that led to the self-employed WTC boom, from people being ported off IB/DLA who become self employed because they are shunned by employers, those who can't find work in economically depressed areas, the way more companies oblige their employees to become 'self employed'.

But if you're a longer term member of MSE who browsed this forum, you would have seen a lot of crazy half-arsed business ideas and got a better idea how people did it just to maximise benefits, not because they had any great business drive.

SE became a new way to avoid the hassle of JSA conditionality, in the same way that IB was used to park the less employable, the non- unemployable and the unemployed.

fabforty

OPs first post mentioning the idea of 'selling something here and there', is the problem. No suggestion of a viable business which might eventually support them once it grows. It doesn't describe all SE, but unfortunately it is the view of many.