Just Lost My Job

[manker]

How was I wrong? I stated that once you've demonstrated that you can earn a living without an employer you are less likely to receive benefits. That is correct. I didn't encompass those that register and never earn anything but nor did I exclude them.

What you say is also correct but, relatively speaking, doesn't happen very often, you had some particularly bad advice and should have been made aware of the consequences of registering as self-employed before commiting as such.

Effectively you signed a form without reading the small print.

[Robert00000]

Do the benefits agency make checks on your savings? because my friend had a great deal of money saved up (don't ask me where, i'm assuming in a bank account) but he was still entitled to benefits.

[manker]

Originally posted by Robert00000@5 August 2004 - 14:30
Do the benefits agency make checks on your savings? because my friend had a great deal of money saved up (don't ask me where, i'm assuming in a bank account) but he was still entitled to benefits.

Yes, if you have more than 7 grand (or thereabouts) in savings or investments, your benefit cheque will have a very different look. Some benefits stop while others are significantly reduced.

[lynx]

Originally posted by Robert00000@5 August 2004 - 14:30
Do the benefits agency make checks on your savings? because my friend had a great deal of money saved up (don't ask me where, i'm assuming in a bank account) but he was still entitled to benefits.

Yes, if you've got over £6000 of savings you can't get Income Support, but you can get JSA. I think the limit is about £18000 for Council Tax Benefit. They will ask you about your savings if you apply for IS (or CTB) and they ask to check your bank accounts if they know about them.

Edit: the figures above are 2 years old, they may have changes since.

One of the other drawbacks about registering self-employed, you have to pay your NI stamp, and the most convenient way is to pay direct from your bank account. Of course, at the time you don't think about keeping quiet about your bank account, so then they've got the info they need to ask about them.

@Manker, have you ever tried to get the "small print" about benefits in the UK? The only truly definitive place is in some Benefits Agency manuals, and you have to know exactly what you are looking for to get the right answers. I know, I've tried. When you are genuinely trying to get work, you try to give yourself the best options for doing so.

Why should you be worse off because you have tried to work for yourself rather than for an employer? If your employer's business went bust, you would be entitled to JSA. If a self-employed persons business goes bust, why shouldn't he/she be entitled to the same provisions?

[manker]

Originally posted by lynx@5 August 2004 - 14:56
@Manker, have you ever tried to get the "small print" about benefits in the UK? The only truly definitive place is in some Benefits Agency manuals, and you have to know exactly what you are looking for to get the right answers. I know, I've tried. When you are genuinely trying to get work, you try to give yourself the best options for doing so.

Why should you be worse off because you have tried to work for yourself rather than for an employer? If your employer's business went bust, you would be entitled to JSA. If a self-employed persons business goes bust, why shouldn't he/she be entitled to the same provisions?

Well, I'm not talking about the benefits agency 'small print' in it's entirity. I doubt if there is a person alive who is fully versed. There are a number of subsections each with their own experts in different departments or even external organisations.

I was refering to you signing up as self employed without being aware of exactly what it entailed. An accountant would have been able to tell you the pitfalls so you could have made a more informed decision.

With regard to not getting JSA should your business go bankrupt c.f. getting JSA if an employers business goes bankrupt, the simple reason for the distinction to discourage benefit fraud.

I can pretend to stop trading but I can't pretend to be made redundant.

[Robert00000]

Well the sum he had at the time was £80,000 + (not including the business which wasn't in his name) I don't think he declared it, so the question i'm asking is do they carryout checks (like a credit check) if you don't tell them you have money stashed away.

[manker]

Originally posted by Robert00000@5 August 2004 - 23:49
Well the sum he had at the time was £80,000 + (not including the business which wasn't in his name) I don't think he declared it, so the question i'm asking is do they carryout checks (like a credit check) if you don't tell them you have money stashed away.

No they don't make any checks at that point, whatever you put on the form they take your word for it.

Because of the sheer volume of work, the Revenue - the people who do the grunt work - only do checks on a retrospective basis. They feed the data into a computer which analyses the ratios and compares them to information already held about the individual, if this doesn't tally up then human eyes look into the problem and decide whether to investigate. In addition to that the same computer soft picks out a number of people at random, who's information appears correct according to the automated tests, for the inspectors to investigate.

Your mate will probably get away with it, I suspect if the business isn't in his name then he isn't going to be daft enough to put the cash in a UK bank account that is in his name

[Robert00000]

Originally posted by manker+6 August 2004 - 09:40--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (manker @ 6 August 2004 - 09:40)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Robert00000@5 August 2004 - 23:49
Well the sum he had at the time was £80,000 + (not including the business which wasn&#39;t in his name) I don&#39;t think he declared it, so the question i&#39;m asking is do they carryout checks (like a credit check) if you don&#39;t tell them you have money stashed away.

No they don&#39;t make any checks at that point, whatever you put on the form they take your word for it.

Because of the sheer volume of work, the Revenue - the people who do the grunt work - only do checks on a retrospective basis. They feed the data into a computer which analyses the ratios and compares them to information already held about the individual, if this doesn&#39;t tally up then human eyes look into the problem and decide whether to investigate. In addition to that the same computer soft picks out a number of people at random, who&#39;s information appears correct according to the automated tests, for the inspectors to investigate.

Your mate will probably get away with it, I suspect if the business isn&#39;t in his name then he isn&#39;t going to be daft enough to put the cash in a UK bank account that is in his name [/b][/quote]
I guess he&#39;ll be relieved to hear that, but i think he&#39;s a lot more shrewd than i gave him credit for

[Voetsek]

They know everything even that i had a co op card scary i have more or less nothing in my name so i am safe

[Snee]

Originally posted by danb+4 August 2004 - 15:51--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (danb @ 4 August 2004 - 15:51)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by brenda@4 August 2004 - 14:45
<!--QuoteBegin-danb

@4 August 2004 - 13:43
Are they that nice then?

Yes

but only if you&#39;re nice to them..... otherwise they send you to prison

Been there, done that [/b][/quote]
Who&#39;s the tax-dodger now, bitch?