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!

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

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

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.

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.

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.