Hello
I am fairly new to the world of being a carer as I now care for my 18 month old son in receipt of high rate care DLA.
After attempting to return to my previous demanding role I am making a career change as the demands of caring for my son whilst doing my pre-baby job is too much and he needs more of my time. I am planning to give up my current job, work 12 hours at minimum wage and claim carer’s allowance for a year or so until I am able to find a suitable nursery (which is proving difficult) which will then give me more time to work. At the same time, in the evenings, I am looking to turn a hobby into a (very) small business. I will not need to register as self employed as income before expenses will be less than the £1k trading allowance. The small business is a long term project and due to setup costs, I am looking to break even only in the first year and it may be that it makes a small loss due to set up costs.
I am struggling to work out how setting up the small business could impact on my claim for carer’s allowance and would be grateful for any guidance. For the purposes of a carer’s allowance claim, is it only profit (i.e. after business expenses) which needs to be declared? If there is no profit during the period I claim carer’s allowance for, do I need to include it within the carer’s allowance forms at all?
I am petrified of doing something wrong!
Many thanks