Claim JSA and be self employed?

sunwukong

Hello

I am a single mother on full benefits (not by choice my partner of 13 years became emotionally abusive and walked out on us last year).

I've been trying yo find part time work during the school hours for nearly a year now without success, I have a friend who does voice acting for a hobby and has done for years, she works full time as well, most of what she does is free for online indie games and things but there is some paid voice work in this country and dedicated websites advertising for it, the low level work on small games projects and the like you do at home in your time you just need a decent microphone and a computer.

The only issue is to do that as paid work you need to be registered as self employed,. I am currently getting £65 a week in JSA, in this country there's no way I'd be able to consistently replace that income with voice acting work, its really just something i wanted to do while still looking for a job as I feel I'm on the scrapheap and not getting anywhere, a little paid hobby, something to be proud of that gets my name out there.

Does anyone know if you can be self employed in field with such sporadic low paid jobs it could never support someone and claim JSA and look for a real job at the same time? I believe i am on income based JSA at the moment.

Thank you

pmlindyloo

sunwukong wrote: »

Hello

I am a single mother on full benefits (not by choice my partner of 13 years became emotionally abusive and walked out on us last year).

I've been trying yo find part time work during the school hours for nearly a year now without success, I have a friend who does voice acting for a hobby and has done for years, she works full time as well, most of what she does is free for online indie games and things but there is some paid voice work in this country and dedicated websites advertising for it, the low level work on small games projects and the like you do at home in your time you just need a decent microphone and a computer.

The only issue is to do that as paid work you need to be registered as self employed,. I am currently getting £65 a week in JSA, in this country there's no way I'd be able to consistently replace that income with voice acting work, its really just something i wanted to do while still looking for a job as I feel I'm on the scrapheap and not getting anywhere, a little paid hobby, something to be proud of that gets my name out there.

Does anyone know if you can be self employed in field with such sporadic low paid jobs it could never support someone and claim JSA and look for a real job at the same time? I believe i am on income based JSA at the moment.

Thank you

You can certainly be self employed and claim JSA but it could get messy. You would need to work under 16 hrs a week to continue with your JSA claim and report your earnings to the DWP probably on a weekly basis. This, in turn, could mess up your HB and CT claim - not something I would recommend.

How old are your children? If you could find a job for 16 hrs and arrange child care during the holidays then you may be able to claim working tax credits and get help with the child care costs if they are with a registered child care provider.

Have you tried supermarkets? Some are very flexible with single mums.

Also, think about volunteering while the kids are at school. Will make you feel less 'useless' and can sometimes lead to a paid job. Put 'volunteering' and the name of your nearest large town into google and see what comes up.

Not trying to put you off the self employment idea just giving you a 'heads up' as how difficult this can be when the income is variable.

sunwukong

Thanks he's 7

I'm in London and they have plenty of choice of unemployed, most jobs want flexible, I've applied for things advertised as little as 4 hours a week with no flexibility asked for, only for them to phone me me up and ask if I can do weekends and work until 8pm.

I did actually get taken on by a zero hours contractor for royal mail, the job was advertised as 11am to 2pm, then as soon as i was on the books they claimed they don't do that they only do shifts of 6am to 2pm and 2pm to 10pm, so i never got anything from them.

annandale

I had to sign off jsa to become self employed. Universal credit would be a better option for you.

pmlindyloo

annandale wrote: »

I had to sign off jsa to become self employed. Universal credit would be a better option for you.

That depends on what kind of UC is operating in the OP's area.

Unless it is a full service area then there are likely to be gateway conditions. Those might involve not being able to claim if you have children/self employed.

Mersey_2

That's true. Once on UC you can go self-employed, but as a self-employed individual you'd be barred from claiming UC online.

Darksparkle

Do you need to restrict yourself to school hours?

As mentioned, if working at least 16hrs per week you can claim help with childcare. Most childcare in my area is available 7:30am-6pm. Some childminders are more flexible and offer extended hours and weekends.

sunwukong

Yes I'm a single mum and his fathers loopy and untrustable imo.

I think having him in the before and after school clubs would be a waste of money, i doubt I'd get above minimum wage and it costs more then that.