selling on ebay whilst on benefits?

jan03

Cute_n_Quirky wrote: »

Provided the sale on Ebay is for personal goods ie not goods bought in to sell, the Seller can have £100 per week in sales and it would not affect any benefits.

Is this right? How did you find out? When i phoned the benefits people i was doing a couple of hours cleaning a week and they said £20 per week, do you think that £20 only applies to actually working for an employer?
Thanks

tosca5

I'm sure i read some where that it's classed as an income. It has to be declared.

thinkginge

if it is £100 a week, this would greatly help my friend, if anyone could confirm this id be grateful. thanks

thinkginge

can anybody verify the £100?

ormus

cant verify it 100% but i would have thought that selling your own property is not any business of the DHSS.
ie if i sold my own car for 5/10k and sold my wifes car the yr after, they couldnt say id earned 5k per annum over 2 yrs?

eco123

A little off topic but I must congratulate the previous poster on his/her correct grammar...

cant verify it 100% but i would HAVE thought that selling your own property is not any business of the DHSS.

So many times I see people putting OF instead of HAVE, it does annoy me :mad:

RFW

ormus wrote: »

cant verify it 100% but i would have thought that selling your own property is not any business of the DHSS.
ie if i sold my own car for 5/10k and sold my wifes car the yr after, they couldnt say id earned 5k per annum over 2 yrs?

I'd be a bit concerned that someone claiming income support had the means to draw on an extra £100 per week albeit in existing assets.

For information such as this to be on the safe side check with the relevant bodies first (benefits agency or simialr) or the Citizen's Advice Bureau. The advice above appears to be conflicting between what extra income you can earn whilst on benefits and for tax purposes.

Alfie_E

ormus wrote: »

cant verify it 100% but i would have thought that selling your own property is not any business of the DHSS.
ie if i sold my own car for 5/10k and sold my wifes car the yr after, they couldnt say id earned 5k per annum over 2 yrs?

You can’t assume that the definition of income for benefits is the same that for taxation. You can’t even assume that it’s consistent across benefits. Income tends to mean any money coming in, unless explicitly excluded.

Having had a quick look at The Income Support (General) Regulations 1987, it would seem to come under paragraph 22, sub-paragraph (1) of Schedule 9 – Sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings.

22.—(1) Any income derived from capital to which the claimant is or is treated under regulation 52 (capital jointly held) as beneficially entitled but, subject to sub-paragraph (2), not income derived from capital disregarded under paragraph 1, 2, 4, 6 or 12 of Schedule 10.

The money received from selling the clothes – the income – is being derived from the value in the old clothes – your friend’s beneficially-owned capital.

As lsx said, when in doubt, ask the benefits people. But, it’s also best to know what answer you expect and why. If you don’t get the answer you expect, you’re then able to point them at what made you come to your different answer. Similarly, your friend should keep full records of what she’s sold, so she can fully account for any money arriving in her bank account. As tosca5 said, the rules may technically require your friend to declare the money from the sales, rather than waiting to see if she’s asked. In practice, I imagine things are normally sold to friends or relatives for cash, so would never get declared. If your friend were to declare the money, it should be immediately disregarded and have no effect on her Income Support.

Cute_'n'_Quirky

thinkginge wrote: »

can anybody verify the £100?

The £100 I mentioned was as an example.

I do CAB work.

If you sell your own property the income is neither taxable nor any business of the DWP. That applies to any personal property.
It is not a business nor is it classed as income.

Contains_Mild_Peril

If you were, however, selling an average of £100 worth of belongings per week over a period of time then it could look suspicious, but an ebay seller's account provides a handy record of transactions in case anyone asks.
The only situation I cna think of where such income from personal property sales might become an issue would be if the claimant acquired several hundred £s in savings, which is unlikely. My view (I'm not sure how DWP view this) would be that money from sales of children's outgrown clothes etc belongs to the child anyway and not the parent, who is acting on the child's behalf if they spend it on new stuff for the child.