Hi, my name is rubs! I am receiving pip standard and UC lcwra

rubs

Hi , I am receiving pip standard and UC lcwra. My husband works and we have some help after his income deducted. I am 43 and want to do some self employment to keep me going as I feel depressed and useless. I am thinking of doing online buisness but as I don’t have much experience and no idea if it will work or not. I don’t know how to deal with it if I tell UC in journal that I am starting to be self employment and would that affect my UC? If any one have any experience about it please advise me. Regards 

woodbine

@rubs hi and welcome to scope, how are you today? Any income would have to be declared to UC and you would need to register with HMRC as self employed, would advise some careful research first.

rubs

Thanks for replying woodbine. I’m very well. Hope you are good too. It’s so annoying when we don’t know what to do?  I have health issues where I struggle with fatigue and brain fog a lot. Just want to keep myself busy at the same time useful but not finding any easy way. 

chiarieds

As far as HMRC goes, there's some guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/set-up-sole-trader  

For looking into self employment in general, then I'd recommend some of the free info from The Federation of Small Businesses, such as this: https://www.fsb.org.uk/knowledge/fsb-infohub.html  where you'll see there's info about selling online, & many free guides such as setting up as a sole trader.

The best advice I could give is yes, certainly do your research, do you have something unique to sell, or do you need to check the competitions prices? but above all, start small & see how it goes. Keep basic expenditure & sales accounts, &, if possible, get an accountant....they'll do your tax returns & give advice. Find one here: https://find.icaew.com/

Edited to add: if you haven't already got some decent kitchen scales (dependent on the items you hope to sell) invest in them, & add on the packaging you intend using to work out your postage costs, then think about what size the item + packaging will be & check your cost with the Royal Mail's website. We never made a profit with our postage, & indeed refunded if it was less than estimated, but that's up to you. We did have many repeat customers who appreciated this.

rubs

Hi chiarieds 
thanks for your advice. I am thinking of selling clothes online. I have worked out kind of expenses of postage and stock. Obviously it’s starting very small so profit will be not be much. This is my query that if they ask me how much you think you will make and since I can’t be committed with time I can give each week depending on my health. I don’t know what to respond to these questions. I wish they just say. Do as much you can and let us know we will deduct from income rather asking many questions and making me more anxious. 

chiarieds

I believe you report any profit from your business on the last day of your assessment period,so are just reporting what you have actually made, & with any self employed business this will vary. You may have seen it, but there's a little info here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-self-employment-quick-guide/how-to-report-your-earnings-from-self-employment

Jimm_Scope

Look at this Citizen's Advice page on the subject and going to the " If the minimum income floor doesn't apply to you" section, as you are getting LCWRA it says the following

Your payments will be based on what you actually earn through self-employment. Check how much Universal Credit you’ll get.
You'll have to report your earnings every month to the DWP. Find out what earnings to report and how to do it.

If you follow the second link in that quote it will tell you how to calculate and report your earnings. You have from 7 days before the period ends to 14 days after the period ends to report your earnings.

If you are unsure you can estimate your earnings for the previous month but the DWP likes to know why you cannot report an exact amount.

And do indeed research before diving in too strong. It is a risk, but it can come with a nice reward.  Better safe than sorry and research a lot beforehand.

chiarieds

Hi @Jimm_Scope - it's usually said on this forum (by those that know more than me!) that a self employed claimant would report any profit (or no profit) on the last day of their assessment period. I have looked into this to check the veracity even so. In this case I feel it would be better to go with the info on the gov.uk website:https://www.gov.uk/self-employment-and-universal-credit

''Reporting your income and expenses

At the end of each monthly assessment period, you’ll need to report:

• how much you earned from self-employment, even if it’s nothing
• any money you paid into a pension
• payments into and out of your business''

Jimm_Scope

Oh, interesting. I was referencing this below from the above link. I agree that it is better to err on the side of caution always and go with the more strict criteria.

You'll have to report earnings for each month the DWP calculate your Universal Credit payments - this is called an 'assessment period'. Your assessment period usually starts on the same date each month - starting 1 calendar month after the date you submit your claim online or over the phone.

You can report your earnings for the month from 7 days before and until 14 days after the end of your assessment period.

Example

Ruth claims Universal Credit on the 8 November. Her assessment periods start on the 8th day of each month.

Her first assessment period runs from 8 November to 7 December. She must report her earnings for this period to the DWP between 1 December and 21 December.

rubs

Thanks everyone for advising. As you all said the same thing I should take more time doing research before jumping right in. I guess I will delay it and start when I am clear about what would suit me and my situation. Really appreciate everyone for their time and kindness 

chiarieds

Spend some time looking around the various platforms online to check out the competition (if you'd have any), where you'd buy items/materials, etc. It can be interesting doing this. Perhaps there might be some local markets, where you could look around & chat to the stallholders. That sort of thing might be another option, & always keep your options open.