HB and Ebay Sales
ItsJustMeJane
Posts: 8 Forumite
Hello!
I am receiving Housing benefits and Council tax reduction as of earlier this year. Recently the council wanted to check up on my accounts and in particular asked how I was paying for any rent shortfall. The amount they give me does not actually cover my whole rent, and I don't have much (or any) income this year as my company has not been able to pay me since January. I won't go into the details as it's not relevant, but here is my question:
One of the ways I have managed to pay my rent is by selling personal items. I have been a collector my whole life, so I have just been selling random things like beanie babies, valuable signed CDs etc, things that I have bought throughout my life. In the last 5 months we had quite a few bills to cover so I sold for about £500 and my partner for about £1000.
I'm a little worried because these are large numbers, and while it shouldn't be counted as income as far as I have been reading (everything was our own personal stuff, we are not a shop), will the council see it this way, since it is such a high number? I just don't know how we are meant to manage when the HB doesn't cover our costs, and if we are not allowed to sell our stuff because we will be earning too much (Is this even too much??) how are we meant to be able to get by? Will they want to see my Paypal account if I mention the sales (can they see this anyways, it seems like the government has eyes everywhere haha)? I really don't know what to tell them, and I want to be as honest as possible, but I also don't want any misunderstandings! I wouldn't want them to think I am running a business because of my ebay sales, when as far as everything I have seen, it should be ok to sell your own stuff as a private person. I saw a lady on here mention she sold some old baby clothes for £70 and that was enough for the LA to call her in and claim she wasn't telling them the truth about her earnings :eek:
Any advice, or a link to some clarification on what guidelines the LA use would be a huge help!
Edit: Just to add that in terms of what is being sold, for example I have over 300 pokemon cards from back in the day, and have sold maybe 50 of these. Just as example figures.
I am receiving Housing benefits and Council tax reduction as of earlier this year. Recently the council wanted to check up on my accounts and in particular asked how I was paying for any rent shortfall. The amount they give me does not actually cover my whole rent, and I don't have much (or any) income this year as my company has not been able to pay me since January. I won't go into the details as it's not relevant, but here is my question:
One of the ways I have managed to pay my rent is by selling personal items. I have been a collector my whole life, so I have just been selling random things like beanie babies, valuable signed CDs etc, things that I have bought throughout my life. In the last 5 months we had quite a few bills to cover so I sold for about £500 and my partner for about £1000.
I'm a little worried because these are large numbers, and while it shouldn't be counted as income as far as I have been reading (everything was our own personal stuff, we are not a shop), will the council see it this way, since it is such a high number? I just don't know how we are meant to manage when the HB doesn't cover our costs, and if we are not allowed to sell our stuff because we will be earning too much (Is this even too much??) how are we meant to be able to get by? Will they want to see my Paypal account if I mention the sales (can they see this anyways, it seems like the government has eyes everywhere haha)? I really don't know what to tell them, and I want to be as honest as possible, but I also don't want any misunderstandings! I wouldn't want them to think I am running a business because of my ebay sales, when as far as everything I have seen, it should be ok to sell your own stuff as a private person. I saw a lady on here mention she sold some old baby clothes for £70 and that was enough for the LA to call her in and claim she wasn't telling them the truth about her earnings :eek:
Any advice, or a link to some clarification on what guidelines the LA use would be a huge help!
Edit: Just to add that in terms of what is being sold, for example I have over 300 pokemon cards from back in the day, and have sold maybe 50 of these. Just as example figures.
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Comments
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If they think it is income they will ask for an explanation, if you can prove it was personal items and you are not a trader, then it shouldn't be big issue.
Can you show them prints from ebay showing you are a personal seller and a breakdown of what was sold etc?0 -
Yepp I could break each item down, but I do still worry about the amounts. There seems to be no definitive number that says if you sell more than X items or over X amount then they start questioning if you are private or business. If I theoretically had to sell all my belongings that could amount to a lot, but would that be okay since they are just my existing assets?If they think it is income they will ask for an explanation, if you an prove it was personal items and you are not a trader, then it shouldn't be big issue.
Can you show them prints from ebay showing you are a personal seller and a breakdown of what was sold etc?0 -
I had wondered about this as well, but seems like in general it might just be up to the case worker? It's strange that it should be so opinion based really, there should be some solid guidelines or numbers out there somewhere?0
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heffa_lump wrote: »I had wondered about this as well, but seems like in general it might just be up to the case worker? It's strange that it should be so opinion based really, there should be some solid guidelines or numbers out there somewhere?
Well when does it stop becoming personal items and become a business?0 -
Just because you class it as personal they may not. You could have been accumulating them to sell, hence your a business.0
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I understand that COULD be the case for some people. But really that will ultimately boil down to an opinion. You can't prove something like that I don't think? I've had these cards since I was a kid, I never intended to sell, I wanted a full collection. But how can you prove that, it's just my word against yours in that caseJust because you class it as personal they may not. You could have been accumulating them to sell, hence your a business.
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Why are you still working somewhere that hasn’t paid you for 10 monthsMortgage free wannabe
Actual mortgage stating amount £75,150
Overpayment start date 1/3/23.
Starting balance £66,565.45
Current balance £63,787.160 -
"The amount they give me does not actually cover my whole rent, and I don't have much (or any) income this year as my company has not been able to pay me since January"
Why has the company you work for not paid you since January? You're not still woring there are you?Ryan0
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