Firstly I hate not being able to work and gave up my fulltime job as a teaching assistant to care for my partner so have begun a home business from my hobby as a Cake Maker, I discussed this with my benefit review officer late last year and she advised me that it sounded like a very good plan and that the only rules were that I had to declare all income over the £20 weekly earnings allowance which I’m more than happy to do so that I can build a portfolio of my work and a good reputation. with what the officer told me in mind I got the relevant registration in place and have been taking orders for the past few months none of which earned me more than £20 in 1 week until last week as I’m trying to build a name for myself so am not charging the true value of the cakes just enough to ensure I don’t get left out of pocket , I’ve kept records of all income and expenditure for each order and even have a spread sheet that works out the weekly totals and plan to send all this into the benefit department at the end of each month so they can see what I earned and on what weeks. BUT here’s my problem I have today received a letter to say I need to attend a compliance interview and that my income support may be stopped and I’m now worried sick.
How am I ever going to make a success of this and get off of benefits if they do nothing to encourage or support me. I have to work from home as my partner cannot be left alone for more than an hour or so this seemed like a really good plan now I’m not so sure
Hi Emma.
In order to offer some advice here , what benefits / allowances are currently being received by you and your partner ?
Under Universal Credit ?
Housing status ?
I am in receipt of Income Support, Carers Allowence, Child Benefit, Child Tax credit and Housing Benefit
Partner receives PIP enhanced for both care and mobility
Thanks Emma.
I very much suspect the Income Support element will be affected by any earnings.
Time to crunch some nunbers through an online benefits calculator to see the effect :
Will be worthwhile experimenting with a few weekly earnings scenarios to see the actual effect.
Any taper revealed or … a like for like deduction ?
The officer told me to declare the weeks that I had earned over the £20 and to send in the information at the end of the month, I am familiar with this process as I had to do this when I worked part time some years ago. But there lies the problem as not every week will be the same last time it was a set salary.
for example from the last 3 weeks as this was the first time since starting in November I was over the £20
w/c 4.3.19 total income £42.38 - £22.38 over the weekly allowance
w/c 11.3.19 total income £0.00 ( no orders)
w/c 18.3.19 total income £35.24 - £15.24 over weekly allowance
Irregular income will be averaged out.
A couple of links that will assist in this regard :
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/how-to-budget-for-an-irregular-income
How much Income Support will I get? - Turn2us
The fun starts when the average figure produced for benefit calculations coincides with a good period , just when earnings being to dip !
Seasonal employment / zero hour contracts /self employment … the misfits within the current benefit system … even worse under
Universal Credit.
Thank you its alleviated my worries slightly I can cope with the lower IS payments as I pay all priority bills from the PIP and CHB payments the IS is mainly used to buy food and I’m a good budget meal planner. I think I may go to the interview armed with all my figures from Nov until the date of the interview and ask them to give me a solid plan of action as to how I go about ensuring that all my declarations are correct. I think I will ask them to put it into writing so I also have proof of the advice given to me too.
kind Regards Emma
Your welcome and … good fortune.