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Earning While on JSA
Comments
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He sounds like a crook to me, have you tried sitting down with him and exposing him?
No. Unfortunately we don't have the kind of relationship where he would respond well to being "corrected", as he would see it. This is one of the things that caused us to split up. He advertised his qualifications to his customers, stating that he has a Masters degree and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, neither of which he has. That's fraud by misrepresentation and I was terrified that we would be taken to court by one of his misled customers if people found out. I could not convince him to "un-qualify" himself, and that was the final splitting straw.0 -
blondebubbles wrote: »How many staff does the £10,000 cover? Do you know if he Is registered for PAYE as an employer?
According to his website there are three members of staff, plus him. But there are only 8.5 hours of classes advertised. Three of those hours are taught by staff, so the remaining 5.5 must be taught by him. He is not registered as PAYE. He runs as a sole trader. He always used to get his staff to submit invoices for their work. They then declared their earnings as freelancers themselves. No pension provision or anything like that. He only runs the classes during term time so those staff are being royally paid for a small number of hours.0 -
Kids won't lose out by much, if anything.
HMRC will not force him to shut down his self employment. They can only force a company to be liquidated moving his work out of a company and into a sole trader status.
DWP can stop his benefit but I'm sure if he's got a gross income before expenses of (I'm betting a conservative figure of) £20,000 he can adjust his work to do the work himself rather than employ freelance workers to do the work for him...which if I were a cynic I think he really does that himself and has a mate invoicing him to appear that he has an expense.
Thing is, he is registered as a sole trader. Should he have people working for him at all if that is the case? There are definitely some staff, running some of the classes. But his work is niche and specialist and he without doubt undertakes an amount of that work himself. I have the feeling that instead of declaring his work's income as drawings, it is being written off as staff earnings.0 -
They don't need to be employees in many cases they can be freelance and this sounds like it could qualify.According to his website there are three members of staff, plus him. But there are only 8.5 hours of classes advertised. Three of those hours are taught by staff, so the remaining 5.5 must be taught by him. He is not registered as PAYE. He runs as a sole trader. He always used to get his staff to submit invoices for their work. They then declared their earnings as freelancers themselves. No pension provision or anything like that. He only runs the classes during term time so those staff are being royally paid for a small number of hours.Thing is, he is registered as a sole trader. Should he have people working for him at all if that is the case? There are definitely some staff, running some of the classes. But his work is niche and specialist and he without doubt undertakes an amount of that work himself. I have the feeling that instead of declaring his work's income as drawings, it is being written off as staff earnings.
He can either employ staff or subcontract out the work as a sole trader which it sounds like he is taking on contractors. I have the same feeling as you but there isn't much you can do about it. I doubt he's got paperwork in his house proving otherwise. HMRC can suspect but they need solid evidence and if they can't find it they can't make up anything based on a suspicion that he is drawing income for himself rather than paying the freelance contractors a royal sum and getting an under the table kickback. Unfortunately it happens all the time and with no evidence HMRC can't do much about it.:footie:
Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. 0 -
fishybusiness wrote: »Ah, makes more sense now.
It doesn't sound right that he would use the system to make a loss each year, whilst on benefits, seems quite a destructive thing to do. He may have staff doing most of the work, and he coordinates his clients needs and ensures work is completed.
Regarding having money to spend on the kids, he may use his business to extract cash to spend on them, tbh I would probably do the same.
I guess the bottom line is what do you want from him at this point. Obviously fair and regular maintenance payments come high up the list.
I'm thinking if you push too hard someone may look in to his affairs and stop his business or his benefits. Either way it would lower his income streams and he will loose out, as will your children.
No money = no transport, no spoiling the kids, etc etc.
In terms of maintenance, there should (to my mind) to be an order to things: do an honest day's work, be paid fairly for that work, pay your tax, national insurance, then cover needs and responsibilities (child maintenance probably fits in here), then use whatever is left to either save or spend.
The children, yes, are benefitting from wonderful trips to London shows and treats and meals out. I buy their shoes, clothes, pay for school trips. I actually don't mind whether he maintains them or not. I suspect he would not pay even if he was eligible to.
My main concern is that if he is capable of generating a gross income of 20K plus, in only two evenings a week he should simply not be on benefits. That, to me, is plain wrong. Whether he runs at a profit or loss probably more down to creative accounting or poor management. But the benefit system is for people in need. He is not in need.0 -
They don't need to be employees in many cases they can be freelance and this sounds like it could qualify.
He can either employ staff or subcontract out the work as a sole trader which it sounds like he is taking on contractors. I have the same feeling as you but there isn't much you can do about it. I doubt he's got paperwork in his house proving otherwise. HMRC can suspect but they need solid evidence and if they can't find it they can't make up anything based on a suspicion that he is drawing income for himself rather than paying the freelance contractors a royal sum and getting an under the table kickback. Unfortunately it happens all the time and with no evidence HMRC can't do much about it.
Right :-/ Yes. It must happen all time.0
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