Claiming benefits inbetween contracts

[XLMonkey]

Am I just feeding a troll here?

Yes, absolutely. Its an a**e of a question to ask (should I claim benefits while having pots of cash - I mean), and not worth answering.

[contractor79]

But if you buy the house with an IO mortgage the tax payer will pay it for you.

that's what I'm thinking
you always read about all these benefits people get
council tax, interest or rent payments, maybe other things too. It's not just the jsa payment of £50/week.

[ASB]

that's what I'm thinking
you always read about all these benefits people get
council tax, interest or rent payments, maybe other things too. It's not just the jsa payment of £50/week.

There mainly means tested. So until you get your assets down to < 16k they won't give them to you. You seemed to imply you currently live in tented. I suspect that buying a house you are not living in and not expecting this to count in the means testing might be a touch optimistic.

[NotAllThere]

He has no moral right to claim when he's got 1,000's stashed away in his business account regardless of how much NI or anything else that's been paid imo.

If he's legally entitled, he's morally entitled. End of.

[chris79]

I was on the bench for 5 months - I paid myself a wage for 5 months out my company before I got to the point where I started to seriously consider folding the company (or at least stopping my wage) and claiming to be "unemployed". It's not so easy for me because my partner works from our company too (part-time on a separate contract we have) so it has to stay active for her purpose.

I went to the Jobcentre and explained my situation, told them I ran my own company, that I'd had very little trade for 5 months, and asked if I could claim. I said I didn't care if the answer was yes or no, I just wanted to know how they viewed my situation.

They told me they would support people who were "self employed", if they were in a bad situation (i.e. no trade).

I waited until the new tax year this April and on the Monday I rang up to make my claim. I spent 1hr 35 mins on the phone making this claim and they went through *everything*.. personal accounts, company accounts, council tax, bank references, balances, savings.. pretty much my entire life administration. Right now the UK Government holds my life story. I was due for an interview on the Thursday as my first "sign on day", where I would discover the fate of my claim.. I still had several thousand in my business account and I was going to explain that whilst I was no longer working for the company, my partner was and the funds were there to cover staff costs and administration.

I got offered a new contract on the Wednesday so I rang up and never made the interview. The outcome of what would have happened here will never be known. I wasn't trying to defraud or bend the rules, I was prepared to resign and stop taking a wage from my own company on the basis I had no employment.

What I do know is that if you have anything >£16k you can't claim. How this applies to business account I don't know, but I was told to take my company P/L sheet with me to the first meeting with them.

For my own situation I've been "employed" full-time despite my company operating a loss for 5 months. I didn't actually want to claim anything but after 5 months the situation got to the point where I felt decisive action was required on the future of my company and contracting (as right now contracting doesn't really seem worthwhile). As it happens I'm now back in a contract and I'll see where things go, but long-term I suspect I could be back in the same position I was in 2 weeks ago.