Turning a hobby into a business while on benefits (universal credit)

GraffSpotting

Hi there, I'm a little confused about some information I have received and was wondering if anyone can clear this up for me please.

I'm currently trying to turn my hobby into a business. I'm a keen photographer and have been involved with marketing throughout my career. After a terrible experience with an employer last year I have been on universal credit and working part time (which you are allowed to do).

Working part-time, it's given me a lot of freedom to indulge my talent for photography and street art. Enough that I think that I can turn it into a viable business, I won't bore you with details but I'd like to know some resources to call on with regards to starting a limited company and being able to still claim some sort of support.

I have no cash in the bank but may be able so source some start up cash from the Princes's Trust and other 'start-up' type funders.

I don't expect the company to make money in the first year and all previous posts I have found seem to talk about the law as it was several years ago.

I would call the business at 'pre-start-up' stage but I have stated sharing my photos through social media and I write a blog (intermittently) too. I'd really appreciate all help you could give on this my maiden post! I'm sure I'll need to call on you again over the coming years as this is my first venture out on my own!

Thanks in advance...

Max

Aquamania

GraffSpotting wrote: »

Hi there, I'm a little confused about some information I have received and was wondering if anyone can clear this up for me please.

I'm currently trying to turn my hobby into a business. I'm a keen photographer and have been involved with marketing throughout my career. After a terrible experience with an employer last year I have been on universal credit and working part time (which you are allowed to do).

Working part-time, it's given me a lot of freedom to indulge my talent for photography and street art. Enough that I think that I can turn it into a viable business, I won't bore you with details but I'd like to know some resources to call on with regards to starting a limited company and being able to still claim some sort of support.

I have no cash in the bank but may be able so source some start up cash from the Princes's Trust and other 'start-up' type funders.

I don't expect the company to make money in the first year and all previous posts I have found seem to talk about the law as it was several years ago.

I would call the business at 'pre-start-up' stage but I have stated sharing my photos through social media and I write a blog (intermittently) too. I'd really appreciate all help you could give on this my maiden post! I'm sure I'll need to call on you again over the coming years as this is my first venture out on my own!

Thanks in advance...

Max

Hi Graffspotting, and a warm welcome to MSE.

I can see from your first post that you have already researched matters the best you can, and in particular you say that "previous posts I have found seem to talk about the law as it was several years ago " which would imply the law has changed and presumably you know in what way ... so you are already ahead of me and probably many others in that regard.
If you need more details of legal matters, I suggest you seek independent legal advice as the internet is not really the place to seek such.

So all I can do at this stage is to wish you the best of luck on your new business venture, but if you do have any more queries with your business along the way, you now know where you can find friendly & helpful support as necessary.

fishybusiness

being able to still claim some sort of support.

What support do you want to claim?

previous posts I have found seem to talk about the law as it was several years ago.

What parts of the law are you referring to?

You need to be more specific as claiming any benefits and working is a complex area.

Running a ltd whilst claiming any benefits IMO has some positives. You should think about the number of hours you will want to work, and if your company income can support those hours in pay. Especially important in your first couple of years as UC will calculate that if you are working 24 hours say, you will take 24 hours of pay.

Think about who will set up your PAYE, RTI and bookwork. It can be a bit complicated the first time around.

Brewandacake

I believe that the job centre will help with setting up a business. You get given a business manager type person and they can help with funding ect. I also think they do a run on with your benefit s for the first six months. You will have to double check with the job centre as its a while since I looked into this x

fewgroats

Prince's Trust can probably advise you better than us.