Self employed HB claim

calcotti wrote: »

Backdating of UC is very limited (maximum 1 month) and you have to have a good reason for not claiming sooner. If the DWP had given you incorrect information that could be a good reason, I’m not sure bad information from the local authority will count.

Whether or not you get paid something will depend on what the DWP assume about your earn8ngs. As per previous post they can treat the self employed as earning a certain amount even if they are not.

The thing is, I'm really not earning much at the moment. You mean they're going to treat it as though I'm earning a full time income from my part time self employed job? This isn't good.

calcotti wrote: »

They might. You won’t know until you’ve made a claim and met with a work coach.

Actually it says here... ( https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/self-employed/ )

"Some people will be exempt from the minimum income floor, eg if you're a lone parent of a child aged under 5 or caring for a severely disabled person - you'll discuss this with the Jobcentre during the application process. You're also exempt if you've been self-employed for less than 12 months."

So it seems that if you claim UC and you're self employed, they'll leave you alone and give you 12 months to build up a significant income. I hope I've got that right.

Thank you.

By the way something has occurred to me :


- Housing benefit was stopped in April.

- My area became a universal credit full service area in July.

- I made my claim for housing benefit a few weeks ago.

When I made this claim a few weeks ago, I was under the impression that it was going to be regular housing benefit, not universal credit full service. Their first letter didn't mention this. They just asked me all that weird stuff that I mentioned earlier. It was only when I questioned what they were requesting that they replied saying I now have to go through universal credit, and they made no reference at all to my questions.

I'm going to apply for universal credit in the next few days. When I do so, do I have, in their view, reasonable grounds to ask that they backdate the housing element? If so, how far?

The reason why I ask is that if I'd known back in july that it was universal credit, I could have applied. The reason why I didn't is because I had no income and thought I wouldn't get it. Now I know that even with no income you can get your rent paid, although of course you'll be required to go to the job centre too.

calcotti wrote: »

As I said in an earlier post (#31) I don’t the local authority giving you bad advice is going to be a good reason for the DWP to backdate a UC claim. However there’s no harm in asking.

But I would have thought it would be the textbook definition of a good reason, i.e. one that is due to bad advice and not to due my own choices or misjudgment. I mean it's not like I knew and chose not to apply. I've had a lot of problems keeping up with my rent because of this. I could have avoided it all by claiming universal credit ages ago.