I read a post at http://www.moneyhospital.co.uk/blog/post/could-you-actually-live-off-60-a-week-20183 regarding living off Job Seekers Allowance (the DOLE) which is apparently £60.50 a week now.
The user comments brought back memories and made me think some people would be better off starting their own business (self employed) rather than being registered as unemployed and claiming job seekers allowance (JSA) or income support (you claim income support if you haven’t paid enough national insurance contributions).
When I started my first business selling adult lingerie and sex toys I’d been out of University for about three years after leaving on medical grounds (chronic back pain, had a back operation earlier this year to fuse discs). I’d been unable to finish my degree in genetics or work due to disability and had been claiming income support on medical grounds (I wasn’t classed as unemployed, I was too disabled to work).
When I decided to start a business I believed you had to register a LTD company or something (I even got the forms from Companies House and everything) and jump through major hoops to start a business (quite funny in hindsight). I couldn’t have been more wrong, I registered as self employed (sent a form in if I recall correctly) and that was pretty much it, I was in business!
At first I thought to be able to survive while running a business I’d HAVE to make a profit, a case of if I didn’t make X £s a week, we wouldn’t eat (had a wife and three sons to support). I was so wrong, in my first tax year (~6 months trading) I lost about £500 (I did accounts from April to April to make accounting simple), that first 6 months was pretty much setting up the business (learning/building a website), but because I was working full time we could claim working tax credits and child tax credits. I forget exactly how much it was, but I’m reasonably sure it was at least as much as income support (I think it was more) and we could still claim housing benefit, council tax benefit etc…
Claiming working tax credits is pretty much a helping hand back into work, you can start on a low wage (no wage) and still get help from the government, over time the idea is you make more money and so need less help (that’s how it worked for us anyway).
I didn’t start a business to claim working tax credits, I hated being disabled and unable to work and the ONLY way for me to provide for my family was to run a business from home/online (I couldn’t sit in a chair for more than 15 minutes). I also hated having to go for incapacity benefit medical assessments to be able to claim income support on medical grounds, (basically incapacity benefits when you haven’t paid enough NI contributions) I used to go in a T-shirt and jeans (big mistake**) and one of the medical assessment doctors said I could work! It took 18 months to go through the appeals procedure and get full income support on medical grounds reinstated, (we had to live off reduced income support) they owed us almost £5,000 in unpaid income support by then!
** If you go to see one of the assessment doctors (any doctor for that matter), PLEASE wear a shirt if you are a man. My wife persuaded me to wear a shirt (plain dark blue shirt with black jeans and soft boots, nothing special) to the appeals medical assessment, I thought she was nuts thinking it would matter (as always I was wrong). I entered the room, the doctor asked me to touch my toes, as always I could barely get passed me knees (I have super tight ham strings). He pulled up the back of my shirt, pushed a few times on the soft muscle tissue of my back (which had never been the issue) and told me I could go! Normally I’d have stripped to my boxer shorts and socks for that type of medical examination and been examined and questioned thoroughly. I was once again disabled according to the DSS doctors!!!! When I’d go to a GP after this I’d wear a shirt and it would be so much easier to get stronger pain medications, I was on 360mgs of di-hydrocodeine a day before my back operation (maximum recommended dose is 240mgs a day).
My First Online Business
I started selling adult lingerie and adult toys because of the markup (amazing markup), I considered selling pellet guns/bb guns before that (less markup). Year 2 (next April to April) I’d sold over £80,000 worth of stock, (I personally took £25K from the business) had to register for VAT and have never looked back. I no longer sell products, I learnt search engine optimization (SEO) and it interested me (not as much as genetics, but I need something that interests me, not just work for money).
I switched my focus from selling products to offering SEO services and have been doing well ever since. To keep sharp I also do affiliate marketing (kind of a money making hobby) and make over $3,500 (~£2,000) a month that way pure profits (£24K a year in my spare time having fun with websites like the one you are reading now 
). I make a $1,000 a month from the AdSense ads you see on this page (ads on multiple sites, not just this one).
Anyway, point is I went into business, self employed and lost money in my first financial year, but because I was working full time I could claim working tax credits and child tax credits. It’s not difficult to setup a business online without having much money, when I sold adult products my biggest expense was a computer (£500), I pretty much broke even on the products I sold first 6 months (I was using AdWords and Overture for traffic in the couple of months I actually had a working site that first 6 months, so didn’t really make much). Year two, which I consider the first year really I’d learnt SEO and was seeing up to 8,000 unique visitors a day for free from search engines (Google loved my site until it banned it for link spamming, yes I made mistakes).
Setup a Business and Can Claim Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits
A person could in theory setup a business to make money from affiliate marketing and ad revenue (AdSense) from articles they write.
This article you are reading now will make me a little bit of money each month. People read the article and a small percentage will click the AdSense ads and I get a share of the revenue from Google AdSense (using Google AdSense is free).
This website was very easy and cheap to setup.
A domain can be registered for under $10 a year (Godaddy is good for non .co.uk domains, I use Fasthosts for .co.uk).
I use two dedicated server for my sites (have about 100 domains), costs about $160 a month, but you could pay for cheap hosting ($50 a year or less per domain, not checked prices for ages).
This website uses a CMS (content management system) called WordPress which is free and aimed at bloggers, minor changes (basically remove the monthly archives) and you have a general CMS rather than a blogging platform.
If you want AdSense ads (signup for AdSense, it’s free) like you see on this site I sell them for £10 each at Google AdSense Templates , I also have one Free AdSense ready theme and plan to add more free ones, so if you want to keep it super cheap, you can.
Total cost under $100 a year per domain (you only need one domain). You can in theory start for free by using a free WordPress blog at wordpress.org or Blogspot blog at blogger.com (both completely free, so no expenses at all to start).
Then you write your ass off and learn about search engine optimization (see some of my other sites below) so you can get free traffic to your site (takes a long time with a new site).
WordPress SEO Tutorial
General SEO Tutorial
Improve Search Engine Rankings
Make Money Online Guide
Don’t expect to make a lot of money quickly doing this, the idea is to have a business so you don’t have to claim job seekers allowance/income support and can then build up the money you make long term (or eventually find a suitable job). It’s got to look better on a CV to have a period of self employment than a period of unemployment.
Websites not your thing, try something else. Window cleaning, car washing, gardening, dog walking….. the list is endless, choose something cheap to setup and if it picks up consider investing then. Since you don’t need to make a profit to be self employed and be able to claim working tax credits and child tax credits it doesn’t matter if you make a lot of money, all that matters is you work full time.
And you never know you might find a great niche like I did and make a great living out of it. We bought a house 3 1/2 years ago, at the rate we are going it will be paid off in full in another 2 years: would be less, but we’ve been renovating which requires cash.
I’ll try to find the time to research some money details for this article, exact amounts people get on income support, working tax credits etc… under various scenarios so it makes sense: currently an idea at this stage, not a full plan for those struggling to survive on unemployment benefits.
Would love to hear others thoughts on this.
David Law
Website - SEO Consultant
33 responses to Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Dave, I printed your article as its long and print worthy.
1) In the US you do not need anything to set up a business, just fill out the right tax forms. I do not understand the working tax credit as I am not a UK citizen, I am a US citizen, I work and pay taxes and can take deductions based on business expense on my schedule c, really that is it. If you have a family of course you get a higher deductible. But there is no ‘on the dole’ in the states except 8 months of unemployment, then that is the end of medical and pay. It kind of sticks for many people and in the USA there are some real problems for many families. But your solution of working for yourself is great, everyone has a niche, it could be dog walking or baking apple pies, but everyone has something to offer this world.
2) I noticed that you use .html on a few of your WP sites? Does .html rank better, there is a debate, but in your humble opinion? If you want a tip about this you know how to contact me, I made a small breakthrough in that regard
3) Your story is inspirational. I work from home as you do and for me to be with my family is priceless, even I do not make a lot. I like Adsense and you are right after years of work you can make money, but do not think you will set up a site about ‘mobile phones’ or ‘credit cards’ and start making money online the next month. Working at home is great,but you have to work, really work, not like working for a company where most people screw off a lot.
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Hey Dave,
I’m not gonna lie…I’m hanging on your next post. I’ve been an SEO/Web Dev for about 9 years but just finally applied my skills to affiliate marketing. Reading your monthly updates keeps me motivated to work long days getting an empire of sites built.
Thanks for your blog!
Mike
We too decided, when we couldn’t find work, to become self employed and go down the WTC/CTC route rather than deal with the DWP and job seekers allowance. Having said that, what I’ve also noticed is that, though the business was profitable from the beginning, it has taken far longer than I anticipated to earn enough profit to get away from reliance on any benefits. It could just be due to the recesssion, but in the back of my mind, sometimes I wonder whether having income guarantees like WTC, CTC, housing benefit, council tax benefit and the like make people operating marginal businesses (my test isn’t profit versus loss but rather profit versus a big enough profit not to need to rely on the government) unnecessarily risk averse.
The other thing – and of course, now I will never know – I wonder is, if not for this option,would we have persisted with trying to get jobs working for other people? I mention this because, while it’s nice being your own boss and for sure, access to WTC has kept us afloat during these first lean years, has also meant that we haven’t earned as much in the last few years as we would have if we had eventually been successful getting jobs working for someone else.
Of course, there is the other side of that coin. If we hadn’t ever got jobs (entirely likely, given factors like age and the recession) we would have still been on JSA with no potential to increase our income.
In some ways, that’s the best thing about being in your own business. As long as it is profitable, so while it may not make you much, only costs you in terms of opportunity cost (of what you could get working for others) rather than real hard cash to support the business, there is always the potential that you can go on growing that business. The sky really is the limit. And that’s something you can’t really say about being unemployed or working for someone else.
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Hi Guys,
Made redundant in April and have not looked back really, also internet marketing and stuff.
Got a good payout but knew it would’nt last so kitted myself out with a pc all mod cons you know. Did’nt have a clue but went for it.
Anyway cut a long story short, i now work from home as they all say. I dont have millions in the bank but who cares I work for a couple of hours on my business and then the day is mine.
They were right it is possible even for a numpty, just check on my sites and investigate new stuff and thats it, move with the times and keep up with new products to stay ahead.
Its all step by step stuff and some of these guys will almost hold your hand through this stuff. 2 guys I swear by are Jim Cockrum and Tellman Knudson, they are the real deal and I just read their blogs and believe in all their stuff. It worked for me and it was easy.
Only thing now is how to legally dispose of the wife and i’m homefree.
Cheers Steve.
http://spyker68.cbpirateblog.com
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
does working at home (ie using your home as a place of business as well as a place of residence) affect your entitlement to housing benefit in any way? i haven’t been able to find much info about this.
re: my question above, from what i can find out, it seems that housing benefit is only affected if part of the home is being used for business exclusively (like a separate office).
Great article- I’ve been on income support forever and just assumed that all state support would be taken away if I ever became self-employed. The only option ever discussed at work-focused interviews ( every 6 months at the Jobcentre) was paid employment, which in my case is not a realistic option given lack of transport and childcare, crap CV, recession etc. Last time at the Jobcentre I wanted to discuss self-employment but was fobbed off with ‘there’s really no point talking about it unless you’re planning to start work immediately’. Duh, when the whole point of asking is so I know in advance what to expect to happen to my benefits, and thus whether the whole plan is feasible! I think a lot of lone parents would set up a home-based business tomorrow if they knew it was likely to be feasible. As you say, we all have something we could do. Always easy to blame the government, but if the DWP made it easier to get information specifically on setting up a business when on JSA/IS etc, and if the Jobcentre staff were trained to encourage and support this aspiration instead of pouring cold water on it, there might be fewer of us feckless spongers around and more successful entrepreneurs! Just a thought
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
This is a really useful article, thank you. I’ve just signed off JSA and in process of trying to claim WTC and HB as a self-employed musician / music teacher, took me months to realise these options, they seem too good to be true. In the process of setting up my own music websites which still seems daunting but your advice is really helpful.
Great source of information!!! I am in a similar situation, just being made redundant from my main job, but run my own shop online and textile business. But I am not entitle to any JSA, due to still be self employed, or Tax credit, as my last year earnings were more than £13.000. Funny how this system doesn’t work at all!! That means I won’t have enough money to pay house, bills etc…but earn more than enough to claim any help!! I reminds positive, and lets hope my business takes off.
I will keep reading your great site.
Regards
Marga
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Good luck with your online business, check out some of my other sites for free SEO information to increase your search engine traffic, in particular these:
http://www.seo-gold.com/seo-tutorial
http://www.google-adsense-templates.co.uk/seo-tutorial-for-wordpress
http://www.seo-consultant-services.co.uk/
Had a quick look at the Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits rules at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/TAXCREDITS/payments-entitlement/entitlement/how-worked-out.htm and the current numbers are:
Looks like there’s a lot of scope for claiming even for those earning up to £50K. I think the Conservatives plan to change the rules if they win the elections, so less families can claim.
There’s a calculator at http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/asp/calculator/
I ran an example through the calculator (couple, one child, no to most questions) earning £13,000 taxable income this/last year and got:
£90.88 a week.
Couple with no children on £13K and it’s £37.57 a week.
Single with no children on £13K and it’s £1.89 a week. Not much, but does entitle a person to free prescriptions etc…
If you are earning around £13K it might still be worthwhile claiming tax credits (no harm trying), especially if you have a partner and/or children (I think I saw kids as old as 20 count?).
The above tax credits calculator is very good, it’s mostly yes/no questions and you can change your answers at the end as many times as you like to see what different circumstances would result in.
David
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
A disability element can bump the WTC up even more. People shouldn’t be too proud on their form to put that they have a disability. It works for them and not against them.Single working men can also claim WTC.
I used to work in the job centre a few years ago
I’m thinking of doing this with my blog, but does HMRC need proof that you are working more than 30 hours a week, so you can get the full entitlement?
How would they know how long it takes you to write a few posts, and how could you prove it?
I have just left my job, was working 20hrs per week. As a single mum of two kids aged 17 and 12 – can i still get child tax credit without having to reapply for jobseekers allowance? i do find it easier to sort my own life out without running in for weekly meetings and being offered ridiculous jobs and having to supply proof that i applied for them. I know i obviously cannot continue to get working tax credit but are they going to stop the child tax credit?
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
The working tax credit and child tax credits you’ve been getting I think are different to the working and child tax credits you’d get if you went self-employed (assuming that’s your plan).
If you’ve already gone self-employed you wouldn’t apply for JSA, I would assume you’d contact the agency dealing with tax credits and have them send new claim forms for working tax credit etc… based on self-employment. I understand the system has changed since I used it years ago, they’ve created various subsets for claiming tax credits, when I claimed it there was tax credits and disability tax credits which covered everyone (self employed or working for an employer).
David
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Your comments so far are wrong and misleading. There is no difference between working tax credits and child tax credits for the self employed versus those working on low incomes for someone else. They are one and the same.
Child tax credits don’t cut out at £16,040, even if that is all you qualify for. Even if two people had two children, were both earning the minimum wage and working full time they would still be entitled to some child tax credit.
Also, even if you don’t qaulify for working tax credit, if you pay rent and have a low income you may still qualify for housing benefit and council tax benefit.
I would suggest people check out sites like www.entitledto.co.uk or turn2us, for a rough guide of what they would be able to claim.
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
This is a really inspiring string of comments; I was made redundant last week aged 42 and rather than run the DWP gauntlet I have, after reading this, decided to go down the self employed route and claim WTC.
I have a small business idea which if I have time at home to grow and devlope (whilst recieving working families tax credit) has the potentail to grow endlessly.
It all sounds too good to be true, claining WTC for staying at home developing a business – especially if I claim for 30hrs per week. Plus I have two small kids.
The down side is that I’ve just lost an extremely well paid job so Im gonna miss the income but the dividends are good, i.e. it allows me a chance to make something of myself, developing MY idea, plus having more time at home with the family – The sky is the limit.
Thanks agian for the inspiration.
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
I’m thinking of going self employed but was put off with the question ‘How much are you going to pay yourself?’. I’m just beginning so don’t expect to even be able to pay myself for a few months or maybe even a year while the business grows.
My question is, can I pay myself with the Working Tax Credits I’ll recieve when I go ‘live’ with my business?
Great website – thanks for sharing.
Orzula
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Ho Orzula,
It doesn’t work like that. WTC isn’t income for the purposes of working out entitlements. Say you start a business and in your first year of operation you expect to make a profit of £2,000. You register as self employed then once your registration comes through, you register for WTC and declare your estimated profits for the current year (i.e. don’t base claim on past year’s income – you have the option to base it on the current year’s estimated income during the start up phase) at £2,000. Based on that declaration, and award will be made to you, backdated to the date you applied for WTC.
Once you have your award notice, other benefit entitlements kick in. If you rent, you should be able to claim both housing benefit and council tax benefit. This may or may not be the full amount of rent/council tax you actually pay, because this part of your claim is based on something called “applicable income”.
For the purposes of this particular calculation, your estimated profit, plus WTC and, if you have children, CTC count, but not child benefit. Once you go over the applicable income amount, the claw back of housing costs is 65%.
Losses for the business don’t count and can’t be carried forward (so unlike for income tax in future years) – they just result in the income from business being set to zero.
For family businesses making around £2k a year, where both parents are working in the business and the family has, say, two children both under 16, the WTC/CTC would be around £180 a week (may have gone up by now). Child benefit doesn’t get counted, so for HB and CTB purposes, the income would be £220 a week.
The applicable income for a family of four is higher than this (around £235 a week or so – again, it may have gone up in recent months) so, always presuming your rent was lower than the local housing allowance you would be entitled to, your rent would be paid in full plus your council tax should aslo be paid in full. Note, however, if the council tax bill also includes the water rates, this latter amount would stil have to be paid.
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Hi, Great site – thanks. Here’s a link regarding WTC and self-employed payment to self, Orzula. The articles are a couple of years old and may be a bit out of date what with all the Benefit changes but interesting none the less. The one about ‘Using WTC as an Alternative to Incap Benefit’ might be of particular interest re your question.
http://resources.socialfirms.co.uk/resources/library/search/results/field_author%3A%22Judy%20Scott%20on%20behalf%20of%20Social%20Firms%20UK%22
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
starting up from scratch
Hi i am interested in starting up my own online buisness but wondered if you had any help with purchasing stock etc ? as i know you said the most expensive bit was the computer but surely to get stock cheap you would need to buy in a large quantity ?
also selling sex toys etc how did you get your sales so high when your up against the big retailers like ann summers that spend thousands on advertising etc ? any help would be appreciated
thanks
justin lee
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Something to keep in mind with stock versus cash in the bank. If you have over £16k in cash and other easily liquidated assets like shares, you can’t quaslify for WTC. Without WTC it is difficult to qualify 9though not impossible) for housing benefit and council tax benefit, because they latter two benefits are easily triggered by the WTC award.
However, if you invest the money in starting up your business, so into trading stock, a computer, a van if you need one for your particular line of business, etc, then being able to reduce your capital in this fashion may then enable you to qualify for WTC and the like.
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
WTC & child tax credits???need help advise please.
my question is , i am a single parent mother with a boy of 14 and a girl of 16 and i am on low income and recieving working family tax credit and child tax credits.i have purchased my own house which is on mortgage,i pay the full mortgage myself from my earnings,fam tax cred and child tax credits. can i have somone living with me who isnt giving me any financial support as it is not a council house and also i am not recieving any benifits.does this or can this affect my tax credits.i know if i was in a council house then i would be alowd to have somone stay over for 3 days but when its your own home and you are not recieving benifits then am alowd to have somone living with me for more than that or does it not .if you could help please.thanks
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
I’ve no idea.
David
WTC & child tax credits???
Thanks for the reply.
There is a rent a room scheme adminsitered by HMRC which enables you to rent out a room in your house for up to £80 a week. This is tax free, i.e. it doesn’t count as income for tax purposes, and nor does it count for working out entitledment to WTC. HMRC should be able to provide you with the details of exactly how this scheme works.
Dont try to screw WTC anymore
doesnt work anymore – you have to PROVE you work or take part in work related activity for 16 hours – andI mean PROVE- saying ‘you handed out leaflets’ doesnt count anymore – and if you can’t , they’ll just ask for several thousand pounds back at the end fo the year. The level of Fraud has been so high, earlier this year,the HMRC pulled in ALL WTC claimants in Bournemouth – Do your back in if you want to start a business online -
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Scaremongering. The level of proof required is no different to any business. Open a business account (both HSBC and Santander have very good, free accounts) with a bank, bank your earnings directly into the account (if free of deposit charges) or into a parallel free current account and then use the bill payment system to transfer the earnings into your business account. That solves the revenue side of things. Then keep track of all your business related expenses, and I do mean ALL of them. So things like parking charges, entry fees to fairs and the like if that’s where you buy your stock, travel costs (i.e. a log book if you use a vehicle), – however trivial they all add up. If you sell over the internet so much the better, – sites like Play, Amazon and Ebay all have excellent reporting systems where you can download your revenue for the year. When selling at markets, you just have a booklet on the day where you write down every sale. If earning money directly from your website, like adsense/clicks and the like, then again, the paying site will have good data showing what has been paid to you.
The chance of HMRC being able to claw back thousands of pounds from you if you are running a legitimate business, however little money or profit you are actually able to make, is laughable. Lots and lots of small businesses have revenue less than £10k a year, and that’s before any legitimate expenses are taken into account.
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Claiming Working Tax Credit
I am now working 20hrs week i am wanting to know how to claim
Taking The Step From JSA To Self Employment
Hi great site. I admire you very much for taking the step of working for yourself. I am a UK Webmaster who desperately wants to get off the dole and become self employed through building websites. However, as you can imagine, I am a little nervous about taking the step in case I end up with no money due to my JSA being adjusted and discontinued. So my questions are:
1. As a single man of 50, with no kids, how much WTC would I expect to get per week? Is it £52.00 for a fifty-year-old, or what?
2. If I declared to HMRC that I was working, say, 30hrs pwk on my websites, how would I provide proof to them of that?
3. Doesn’t the Jobcentre give you an Entrerprise Allowance for a few months? If so, can you claim WTC in addition to this allowance?
I hope you can help me, as I really want to start my own business and get off JSA.
Thanks
Al
Merseyside
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Working Tax Credit vs Job Seekers Allowance
It’s been years since I looked into Working Tax Credits so not the best person to answer.
I would start at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/questionnaires.htm there’s a calculator that should give you an idea of what you might be entitled to.
When I was claiming Working Tax Credit (years ago) I didn’t have to proove anything, I beleive it’s the same now. So they trust you are working, I assume if you say you are working and declaring self employed earnings of a reasonable amount they’ll beleive you. No idea how it would work if you earned nothing for years and claimed (would look suspicous and they should investigate). Took me about 6 months before I was in profit (not unussual for a new business to make a loss), first year £500 loss following year declared over £20K as my earnings. So for me after the first year there was no reason to doubt I was working.
No idea about the Entrerprise Allowance, wasn’t available when I started up.
Good luck.
David
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
WTC, Enterprise Allowance and JSA
Hello,
I am curently claiming JSA as a couple, I am also disabled (mobility only). I am currently on the new Enterprise Allowance Scheme where I am assigned a mentor for 8 weeks (This is apparently NOT taken into account for benefit purposes such as HB, CTB and WTB). After that I would be expected to sign off and claim WTC. I would also receive the EAS amount of £65 for first 13 weeks and then £33 for second 13 weeks. As I am in rented property I will still be able to claim Housing and council tax benefits. Sounds simple but here’s my dilema… It takes WTC 6-8 weeks to sort out your claim and I am unsure how long it takes to process the claim for EAS funds. What do I live on in this interim period? My rent and CT might be paid (that takes time to process as well) but I will have no income for food and bills. Any advice please?
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
hi today ive been told by my employment adviser that i should stop claiming JSA And claim WTC even though im not working, would that be a good thing to do? please help.
what are the minimum hours to qualify for WTC?
Hi, firstly this is a great site, the best answers from real people Ive seen anywhere.
I’m a single mother of a 12 yr old, out of work for many years due to depression (got booted off ESA) now on Job seekers.
I want to pursue a long time dream to becoming an art teacher but need a degree first and want to start a part time access to HE course, 6 hrs a week.
Self employment is the only thing that makes sense as I can choose my own working hours, it would also help me in my aim as I would mostly be creating items I could sell, thus increasing my ability, experience and credibility in the art world.
The job center have been frustratingly awkward in their answers to my questions about self employment dodging my questions like a fun fair side stall game, I’m suspecting there is some sort of conspiracy involved, perhaps they are trying to squeeze people into the jobs no-one wants. That’s what appears to have been happening to me at any rate.
What I’ve learnt from my online research so far is that the job center enterprise scheme seems to be put in place mostly to put people off, making the process seem unattainable if you have a simple idea in mind, and if you get through the initial hurdle forcing you to live on half your benefits for a period of time, making up the difference your self and then having to come off Job seekers to claim WTC anyway, seems going straight to WTC without all that “help” would be easier.
Of course if you have a grand self employment scheme their start up fund would be very useful, but I’m sure the initiative is designed for serious self employment businesses that have a chance of getting people out of benefits altogether, not a plan like mine – to just tide me over till I can get on my degree course and not have to be forced to wash dishes, stack shelves or clean toilets.
How many hours do I have to work to qualify for WTC as a single parent, is it 16 and over?
I assume that if I did it the unassisted WTC way that I don’t need to show a business plan but can just show proof or estimations of in comings and out goings?
Incidentally I thought I would mention that there may be a possible loop hole to paying for that extra council house bedroom that housing benefit wont be paying for as from 2013 in an attempt to encourage/force people on benefits to down size (cutting your housing benefit by approx £13 per week.)
I have an extra box room, its a bit of an insult to call it a bed room but it could be used as an office/ storage/ art room, in which case I understand that if the room is used solely for the purpose of my business I can add the cost of that rooms rent to my out goings and that would count as my expenses so I shouldn’t be out of pocket with that extra room, does any one know anything about that?
Many thanks and good luck to all seeking to free them selves from the job center!
Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support
Leave a reply to Claiming Working Tax Credit Instead of Job Seekers Allowance/Income Support