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Low earnings and council tax benefit.

windymillers

Member
Messages
68
Location
East Midlands
This probably wont apply to those established window cleaners.

I am just starting out and only have 7 customers at the moment, I have been doing the occasional 

cleaning job so my weekly wage has been about £55 on average since I started 3 weeks ago.

I have no other income.

I did not want to apply for council tax benefit but money is very tight at the moment.

I have to fill in a 'self employment earnings information form', but because I have only been trading for 3 weeks need to

estimate my next 6 months earnings.

I am not too good with forms, anyone here have experience with that form?

 
Yes and it's a ball ache, if you get stuck take it to either the council offices and get someone to go through it with you, or phone them up. Usually they're quite helpful.

 
I am ok with part 1 and 2.

Part 3 "About your self employed income".

Part 4 "Expenses from self employed work".

I think I have to estimate figures for the next 6 months, which will be tricky.

 
This probably wont apply to those established window cleaners.

I am just starting out and only have 7 customers at the moment, I have been doing the occasional 

cleaning job so my weekly wage has been about £55 on average since I started 3 weeks ago.

I have no other income.

I did not want to apply for council tax benefit but money is very tight at the moment.

I have to fill in a 'self employment earnings information form', but because I have only been trading for 3 weeks need to

estimate my next 6 months earnings.

I am not too good with forms, anyone here have experience with that form?
Be careful because if you under estimate earnings you could end up paying in the future. Better over estimating so they owe you. 

Had a bad experience with working families tax credit a few years back. They made me pay quite  a lot back by reducing what i recieved drastically. I would also make sure you keep a copy of everything you send them. 

The sooner you can build up your round and get off the system the better.

Best of luck to you.

 
I think the Citizens Advice Bureau can also provide you with help filling out forms.

Good luck with the business!

 
Be careful because if you under estimate earnings you could end up paying in the future. Better over estimating so they owe you. 

Had a bad experience with working families tax credit a few years back. They made me pay quite  a lot back by reducing what i recieved drastically. I would also make sure you keep a copy of everything you send them. 

The sooner you can build up your round and get off the system the better.

Best of luck to you.
Thanks for the replies.

Steve, I have not applied for tax credits before.

I pay the full council tax charge and fit the criteria for 75% reduction with regards to my savings and earnings but to qualify I have to fill this self employment form out to their satisfaction. 

When you typed that it is better to over estimate earnings, what do you mean? I would have thought there is a cut off point, and when earnings are over that amount (don't know how much) no benefit would be available.

 
I have struggled to make ends meet in the past and at the time qualified for a council tax reduction. In my opinion it’s best to be totally honest. 

If the form is still the same and you have been trading for less than 12 months it asks for yr earnings to date, which should be easy enough to fill in. In the section where asked for expected earnings I filled in that I did not know, as it is not guaranteed but I will be canvassing for more work. There was no come back on my form and I was granted the discount. They sent me out new forms to fill in every 3 months, each time being honest and writing the same. When I was earning enough they wrote and told me I didn’t qualify for any discount anymore. 

If if you are still unsure as Clisty1989 says, make an appointment and fill it in with someone at the council offices. 

You may also be entitled to working tax credits, I think this is applied for by phoning inland revenue. I also didn’t want to claim, but hey, I paid enough tax in the past and that’s what it is there for, for the honest people that are struggling. 

Good of luck with yr new venture. 

 
It really does rattle me how the system is set up. Id like to think tax goes towards good causes like supporting hospitals, education, the less fortunate. Which to an extent a lot of it does. But when there’s millions being spent on trident programmes & keeping the royals on benefits balcony, all the while there are genuine working people struggling to keep afloat and the minute you apply for any kind of help they want to know the ins & outs of everything down to the last penny & will sting you like they stung steve E the moment you put a foot out of place. That aint right man


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Thanks for the replies.

Steve, I have not applied for tax credits before.

I pay the full council tax charge and fit the criteria for 75% reduction with regards to my savings and earnings but to qualify I have to fill this self employment form out to their satisfaction. 

When you typed that it is better to over estimate earnings, what do you mean? I would have thought there is a cut off point, and when earnings are over that amount (don't know how much) no benefit would be available.
Sorry i have no experience of council tax reduction. I was making a general point about claiming from government. I was working full time for Fire service. From memory my experience of claiming working families tax credit (4 young kids)about 10 years ago was that they paid us about £70 per week based on estimated earnings. When the actual earnings were submitted at end of year because they were higher than expected  (loads of unexpected overtime due to national floods) they then claimed a lot back. We went down to receiving about £10 per week overnight which made life difficult. ( I'm not complaining as I had earnt the money and in theory I should have foreseen the reduction, but it would have been easier if was taken gradually)

They claim it back over the same period as they overpay you, no ifs  and no buts!

Everyone's circumstances are different but just be wary of underestimating earnings as they will claim it back if you do. It may be worth a visit to citizens advice as it can bite you if your circumstances are likely to improve as hopefully yours will as you build your round.

 
Thanks for the replies.

On the form it asked me if I had been trading less than 12 months to fill it in with the earnings and expenses to date. I started January 5th 2018 so started there and included the next 2 weeks.

I returned the form but then received a letter say it was not complete and asked me to fill in another one "estimating my next 6 months earnings and expenses".

I telephoned the council this morning and went through the form and asked a lot of questions and am a bit clearer about what they want, so will try to estimate my earnings and expenses for the next 6 months.

As far as expenses go (like car insurance, petrol, phone costs), I think 50% can be used as business use.

What I am not sure about is the cut off point for council tax benefit, how much can I earn up to before benefit wont apply?

 
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