selling on ebay whilst on benefits?

TessTickle_3

I'm a single mum on IS, doing a cleaning job for £15 pw. I also use ebay to sell off small bits and bobs around the house that are no longer used or grown out of.

At my last 6 month Job Centre Interview, I asked my advisor about selling on ebay and whether it would be classed as Income.

She told me that if I was selling off stuff like I do then it is no concern of theirs. She did say however to keep records of what I'd sold and for how much so that if I was ever asked about the Paypal payments going into my bank acc then I could just show them.

I now do a monthly print of what I've sold aswell as a monthly statement of incoming payments from Paypal, both of which are easily accesible from the 'my account' pages.

She did also say though, that if I was buying stuff to sell on for profit it would be regarded as Income and then calculated on a weekly basis to come off my IS (In my case it's £5 a week profit from ebay as I already earn £15 doing the cleaning). I don't do this, just passing on the info.

I was also told that the profit would include any money made on Post & Packing charges, so it's probably wise to keep receipts for packing materials etc. Paypal charges however, come off the total.

Hope that all makes sense! x

shoperholicnot

thinkginge wrote: »

my friend would like to sell her little ones old clothes n things on ebay, so she would be a personal seller, not a business.

but she is on income support, so is this legal etc, she doesn't want to get into trouble. but i would think its the same as doing a carboot sale. allowed etc.

she wants to set up a paypal account, then transfer her money to her bank account to spend for xmas, but shes worried about the benefit people. i dont really know anything about this, so i said id ask you guys if you could offer any advice.

thanks guys

x

she is not running a business.
she is selling stuff that she has previously bought and paid for herself.
she is fine to sell her daughters old clothes.

delluver

eco123 wrote: »

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




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

lol, what about would av?... that's why people think it's of. Av, of... sounds alike with a slangy accent.

delluver

How is gaining money back on something you've spent out on in the first place seen as earning? It's different if you're making things to sell etc.

Chollita

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?

They might say you had too much in savings though. Bit different from selling your kids' old clothes and raising £50.

codger

Bit disappointing to see a CAB adviser posting on here without qualifying the content of such post.

There's no magical £100 a week figure. What there is, is the right of anyone to sell goods which they acquired for the purpose of ownership, not with the primary intent of re-selling.

Selling at an equivalent annual rate of £5,200 -- i.e., selling £100sworth of goods on eBay, every week for several months -- would certainly provoke questions.

And the answers might be awkward if the seller is the equivalent of Mrs Marcos with several grandsworth of shoes stuffed in her wardrobe, inviting as it will an investigator's assessment of just what asset value is actually held by the benefits recipient. . .

Safer to stay off figures altogether and instead stick with what's essentially a simplicity:

If you buy to own, and then after use, re-sell, that's OK. (But don't think that buying in January to re-sell in March is persuasive evidence of an honest capitalising on something no longer needed: that explanation may hold good once or twice, but certainly won't if it's serially repeated.)

If you buy to re-sell, then you're trading, and the IR needs to be made aware of that.