I get the feeling that Douglas Adams had a posthumous hand in creating the so called search facility on GOV.UK!
"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available on GOV.UK for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
How the hell do you find anything? Putting in any logical search phrase results in thousands, or even tens of thousands of useless entries. I heard a rumour that the rules on Working Tax Credit for the self-employed are changing in April, and tried various searches to find it. Number 6 of 2,405 results for "minimum wage and working tax credit" was "Apply for your first provisional driving licence"! How did I know to search for stuff related to the minimum wage? I Googled it, and found an article in the Grauniad and an article on the Autumn Statement on the Disability Rights UK web site!
I need to know this because it will have a serious impact on a self-employed friend with health problems who I'm trying to help, and who needs a plan to cope with it.
What else is hiding there we need to be able to find?
Do you think that maybe the changes are sponsored by Lexis Nexis or FLMemo as now we cannot find anything on the HMRC site we're going to have to buy third party replacements.
Worth noting that when you are searching for anything its a good idea to include the site name as part of the search so for any search on that via Google prefix your search with :
because they can't even make a balls up of biblical proportions properly.
Heads at HMRC should role for this mess.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
How the hell do you find anything? Putting in any logical search phrase results in thousands, or even tens of thousands of useless entries. I heard a rumour that the rules on Working Tax Credit for the self-employed are changing in April, and tried various searches to find it. Number 6 of 2,405 results for "minimum wage and working tax credit" was "Apply for your first provisional driving licence"! How did I know to search for stuff related to the minimum wage? I Googled it, and found an article in the Grauniad and an article on the Autumn Statement on the Disability Rights UK web site!
I need to know this because it will have a serious impact on a self-employed friend with health problems who I'm trying to help, and who needs a plan to cope with it.
Are you perhaps thinking of universal credit rules which deem you to have earned at least the minimum wage? It doesn't affect those on tax credits until they move over to universal credit, probably sometime between 2016-17. Once they've moved over to universal credit there is a 6 months grace period before the minimum wage rule applies.
Nope. I know about UC. It's this bit in the Autumn Statement about WTC:
"2.92 Access to benefits From April 2015, self-employed Working Tax Credit (WTC) claimants will need to register their self-employment with HMRC for Self Assessment purposes and provide a Unique Tax Reference number in order to be able to claim. Those declaring income less than the equivalent of working 24 hours a week at the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will also be required to provide evidence to HMRC that the work they are undertaking is genuine and effective."
Oh I see, not heard anything on that at all, and it's an area that affects my son. I've had a dig around but can't find any mention of it other than the autumn statement, or those quoting it.
I can't see how they can implement that rule on someone who is currently only required to work 16 hours.
With regard to your friend, if it does have an impact, would it be worth them setting up a Ltd Company? Directors are not subject to the NMW.
I suspect the same thing would apply if it was obvious that the sole trader had set up a company to try to get round it. And it adds to their costs, workload and stress too, and the reason they're not making any money is due to health problems. Anyway, it will only get worse in a year or so when WTC is replaced by UC, so it may only be a short reprieve.
Yes they can, it's a benefit available to anyone who meets the earnings criteria. Under universal credit, directors will be deemed to be earning minimum wage.
I suspect the same thing would apply if it was obvious that the sole trader had set up a company to try to get round it. And it adds to their costs, workload and stress too, and the reason they're not making any money is due to health problems. Anyway, it will only get worse in a year or so when WTC is replaced by UC, so it may only be a short reprieve.
Fair enough. I'm sad for people like your friend, who were able to run a small business, and thus keep their pride, rather than trudge down the job centre once a fortnight and be expected to look for 30 jobs a week
Fair enough. I'm sad for people like your friend, who were able to run a small business, and thus keep their pride, rather than trudge down the job centre once a fortnight and be expected to look for 30 jobs a week
Especially when there's a good chance of getting sanctioned on the days when they're not well enough to do what's demanded of them. At least being your own boss allows you to do things when you feel up to it.
Yes they can, it's a benefit available to anyone who meets the earnings criteria. Under universal credit, directors will be deemed to be earning minimum wage.
I'll start advising then that rather than taking cuts in salary in order to maintain the workforce that companies need to start letting staff go in order to ensure that during the bad times they are on at least £156 per week (£8112 p.a. based on 24 * £6.50 p.w... Although don't directors need to be working at least 32 hours to benefit from UC?).
I do appreciate that the Government should not be expected to compensate poor performing businesses but the issue here is that unemployment statistics have been manipulated down by people starting their own businesses on the back of being unable to find paid work and those businesses whilst many are still struggling have started to take on staff.
Universal Credits means that many will now find it impossible to continue so will have to go back to being unemployed. Other businesses will not be able to aford to pay staff minimum wage if they have to pay the money to themselves. This is all going to throw an anchor into any recovery that we are enjoying and send unemployment spiraling back to a more realistic figure.
Isn't there also something in the small print that if you are self employed and on Universal credits you need to file accounts with them on a monthly basis? Again, now that everything has moved I can't find where that was now otherwise I would reread and post a link.
What this country really needs is nobody South of Watford Gap services to be able to make laws Governing the rest of us as those in the economic bubble that is London live in a totally different world to the rest of the UK (#2).
God help us all on May the 7th as the mess that is being made of things people might just forget what dire straights the last administration put the country in.
Always remember that if small businesses start folding as it's more beneficial to be unemployed than working even at below minimum wage then those are our clients that will be disappearing... Possibly without paying us first!
Don't you love the way that they can waste half a trillion on a train line that nobody wants (#1), spend goodness knows how much building two new aircraft carriers that they cannot afford to put any planes on (#1), but treat the people that they are supposed to represent with disdain and rob them of a right to food, heat and work.
Sometimes it feels as though I've woken up in the Hunger Games!
Bah Humbug....
#1 contracts were signed by labour, not the coallition. But nothing has been done to rectify the issue (Actually, they're forgiven for the aircraft carriers as it would have cost more to cancel than to complete... What Government muppet signed that contract! Bet they got an MBE where in the real world they would be fired).
#2 I've watched Phil and Kirsty negotiating on tiny leasehold two bed starter flats in converted Victorian terraced houses in Tooting (so not exactly Mayfair!) for £600k where around me you could buy the whole house freehold in a very nice area for that and still come away with £350k change!... Different countries!
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Monthly receipts less payments is what has to be reported, apparently in line with the new cashflow option for self assessment, supposedly to make life simpler for the self employed. So the month you buy new equipment or stock for your expanding business, your business becomes a failure, you lose benefits and have to go job hunting! And what about seasonal businesses, who spend the winter buying or making stock, and make all their money in the summer?
I can see some great arguments between self employed people who trade with each other:
"Can you pay my invoice by the last day of the month please, so I don't lose my UC?"
"Sorry, I need to pay you on the 1st of next month, or I'll lose mine!"
Great business opportunity for offering a cashflow management service, but I doubt if the people who need it will be able to afford it.
When I first heard about Universal Credit, I was very much a fan. The principle behind it is a very good one, the ability to seamlessly switch from benefit to work and vice versa. Regrettably they've complicated it to the point of silliness. Want to take a job 10-20 hours and reduce the burden on the welfare state? Nope, you've got to do a minimum of 24 (couples with kids)
Self employed and claiming uc, forget it, and as Shaun rightly says, it has a knock on affect because you now have to look at laying staff off rather than not pay yourself, in lean times. The bureaucracy in submitting monthly accounts will be a nightmare, and you won't have the flexibility of being able to spread uneven costs/income over the full year.
I'll start advising then that rather than taking cuts in salary in order to maintain the workforce that companies need to start letting staff go in order to ensure that during the bad times they are on at least £156 per week (£8112 p.a. based on 24 * £6.50 p.w... Although don't directors need to be working at least 32 hours to benefit from UC?).
Isn't there also something in the small print that if you are self employed and on Universal credits you need to file accounts with them on a monthly basis? Again, now that everything has moved I can't find where that was now otherwise I would reread and post a link.
Under UC, you will have to submit monthly accounts on a cash accounting basis. This link, whilst not detailed, gives an indication of what they are looking for
Under UC, you will have to submit monthly accounts on a cash accounting basis. This link, whilst not detailed, gives an indication of what they are looking for
-- Edited by 111 Bookkeeping and Payroll on Monday 5th of January 2015 02:56:22 AM
"You must report your earnings from self-employment to the DWP every month in order to carry on getting Universal Credit. You will need to do this online by inputting your actual receipts minus permitted expenses minus Income Tax"
But you're not reporting your "earnings", you're reporting your net cashflow.
"If your expenses for a particular monthly assessment period are unusually high, you cant offset them against your income in future monthly assessment periods" "Whenever you earn more than the average in a month, try to put the extra to one side so that you can use it when you have a less profitable month."
Slight contradiction there. "Put them to one side", but "you can't offset" with future months.
