LTD Company Director Claiming HB - I'm not self-employed though right???

heffa_lump wrote: »

Hello!

In the last couple of months my partner and I, have applied for housing benefit and council tax reduction. We are both directors of a limited company (which has a third person outside of our household as a secretary, if that is relevant??), and we are the two only shareholders. A limited company is it's own legal entity, and as directors we are considered employed by this company (as office-holders), though we are exempt from minimum wage. We have been paid in dividends the years that we had profit, and also received late payments from the company which were repayments for assets brought into the company at it's start. This year the company has taken a turn for the worse, a lot of work getting pushed months ahead, or payments coming in late, and we have not had any profits yet (though we expect this to change as we head towards Q4), so we have not been able to be paid dividends, hence the benefits being needed so we aren't kicked out of our home.

OK, phew, backstory done, here is the question. Our application for benefits was approved and we have been receiving benefits for a few months, however we got a letter today which states "You have not supplied all the details we require to calculate your entitlement" and asking us to fill in a "Self-employment earning information" form. Firstly I don't understand what they mean by us not having supplied the details as we gave them all the information on any directors remunerations, with our bank statements showing these going as far back as a year and a half. It seems strange that they would have calculated our benefits and been paying this to us for a few months if this was the case. My main issue is that they want us to fill in this self-employment form, when we are not self-employed. The reason I worry is that at least where HMRC is concerned if you are self-employed ANY earnings get counted as income, even if you are selling some old junk or other personal items on Ebay. I'm not sure if this is the case with the council? I do sell a bit on Ebay (since our HB don't cover our full rent and bills by a long shot, we have had to sell personal stuff we didn't want to sell). I wouldn't consider this income seeing as it's all personal items, but it did amount to a bit of money (about 2k) though this isn't something that we can keep doing since we will run out of stuff in our home to sell.

Our earnings since applying haven't changed at all, so the numbers are the same, it's just that I'm really not comfortable filling in something saying I am self-employed. I've heard that if the council considers you self-employed you are required to show your bank statements and accounts every 3 months. I have nothing to hide, but this seems both stressful and invasive. Not to be a tinfoil hatter, but I don't think the government needs to know every small detail about my life.

Does any one have any experience claiming benefits as a director? I have had a look through these forums but none of the cases are quite like ours, as some people have been the sole director or owner of the company which indeed does class them as self-employed in the eyes of the LA, however since we are 2 directors, though in the same household (unmarried) I'm not sure how this works. It's a very specific case, so I understand there may not be any clear cut answer, but I just want to know what I should be providing them to keep my benefits coming in, and if there may be any downfall to having them class me and my partner as self-employed.

Any advice is appreciated, I don't want to do anything wrong, I'm just really confused as our circumstances are not as ordinary as what you can find info on online. PS sorry for rambling I don't normally post on forums..