Vinted sales £1014 for the year
Hello,
Can anyone please help?
I am on UC, LCWRA & PIP. I believed I was allowed to earn £1000 on Vinted sales before I had to let DWP know. Also, I'm now being told it's classed as a business?? I was only buying stupidly cheap jewelry off Temu and selling for like double the item price. It was a joint venture with my daughter last year, she did all the posting of parcels and I did the ordering and item listing, we went 50/50 on the incoming.
I'm now concerned it's going to affect my benefits as I'm being told it was a business aswell as going just over the £1000.
Please help what do I need to do to fix this? Thank you.
Comments
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This is why I stopped buying off Vinted..
Also technically you are a business, just selling the odd things are okay. But literally buying something cheap and then selling for a mark up is exactly what a business does.
You need expert advice regarding this.
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I know, but I have no clue where to start. I'm not playing daft, I honestly have no idea.
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Try Turn2us for a benefits adviser in your area. There are members that may be able to help but currently not online. I can't help as no experience of UC.
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Thank you, I will try this.
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Hi @Jennybyn - & welcome to the community.
As far as HMRC goes, then if your annual 'gross' profit (i.e. before deducting expenses such as postage, etc. in your case) doesn't exceed £1k, then you don't have to register as being self employed, nor file a tax return.
From what I have previously read on this forum, then online platforms such as eBay & Vinted now have to say if someone has sold 30 or more items in a year. Selling personal possessions however won't affect any benefits.
Trading won't affect your PIP whatsoever.
I don't know sufficient about this as far as UC goes, but believe you should have reported any income you've made in any of your assessment periods. How this would go with you sharing any profit equally with your daughter, again I don't know, sorry.
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Thank you. I now know I've obviously done the wrong thing I'm just unsure whether to contact UC nor and explain what I've done or wait until they contact me at some point.
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Hi @Jennybyn and a warm welcome to the community from me!!
I see you've already got some good advice from a few of our wonderful members so I won't add anything else today but its lovely to have you here and I hope you enjoy your time on the community☺️1 -
Regards UC, if everyone who ever sold a few personal items on ebay, vinted, whatever, contacted the DWP then they would be inundated with calls.
I've contacted the DWP myself over receiving the odd bank switching bonus and they couldn't care less, same would go for personal items on ebay. However what OP has done definitely sounds more like trading, that being said it's not a lot and will probably fall under the radar.
Given this, I'm honestly not sure how to proceed. It might be worth contacting the DWP, telling them they've sold some items on ebay but to give the DWP the impression they've been trading is a bad idea, unless they specifically ask them that question as trying to mislead the DWP is worse than the trading itself. Especially if calling the DWP results in a compliance interview.
It's your call though obviously. Letting sleeping dogs lie might be the best option but that's entirely up to you. I think the LCWRA side of it is more of a concern than the income itself but please don't worry about that as all of this will probably come to nothing given the amounts involved.2 -
Hi,
Thank you all for the advice. I have contacted DWP today and explained the whole situation, I believed I could earn up to £1000 and recently been told as I've bought items to sell I may be classed as a business.
I've explained how my daughter did the physical side such as getting to the post office etc and that I was just trying to make a little extra for xmas, which is the truth.
I've been completely transparent and I'm ready to pay anything I may need too and answer questions when needed. I only realised yesterday about the business side of it, I wasn't trying to hide anything from anyone. Best to face it head on and get it sorted.
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I'm sorry if I wasn't too clear initially and good for you for being transparent. It's just I should have mentioned the work allowance. Despite being on LCWRA you're still allowed to work on UC. I think the only time when it might trigger a review of your UC is if you're working regularly and exceed 16 hours a week.
Obviously it's something that may come up the next time you have an assessment but I wouldn't worry about it. It's not exactly like you've gone out bricklaying or something.0 -
Hi @Jennybyn - you've done exactly the right thing. Benefits are complicated & confuse many of our members! It's always best to contact the DWP when you've made an innocent error rather than wait for them to find out.
When you are in receipt of LCWRA, then you can earn as much as you like & there's no limit on the hours you can work per week either. There's no problem unless such work contradicts the reason for your LCWRA claim. When you're next reviewed this may be taken into account.
When you're on LCWRA, you do have a 'work allowance' which is just the amount you can earn before any deductions are made from your UC (£684 a month if you don't get help with your housing costs, & £411 a month if you do). After that 55p is deducted for every additional £1 you earn.
Sorry to disagree with both of @Theinternet 's comments above.
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With respect, my reading of this is you haven't disagreed with me much. You've more or less confirmed what I said.
However, perhaps there's some disagreement as to the effect of working whilst on UC with LCWRA. Yes it's true you can do it and people do but I think it's important to make people aware of the implications of doing so, especially if the duties of the job are inconsistent with the descriptors that qualify the claimant for LCWRA, as this may be taken into account during the next UC assessment.I mean people should be encouraged to work on UC but this is not something to be taken lightly as it can potentially result in removal of the LCWRA element following the next assessment.
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Regarding the rest, it is probably trading and she has admitted this publicly but I was just saying the DWP have no evidence of this unless she admits it. That said, the pattern of sales may raise red flags but I feel the level of sales is so small it would barely register on the radar. Obviously I'm not saying she should try and conceal something. I just think it unlikely this would result in some sort of investigation..
So don't get me wrong, being up front with the DWP is the right approach, especially given the seriousness of trying to conceal something or mislead them. I was very keen to point that out as it can result in quite serious consequences.0 -
@Theinternet - I disagree with you saying. ….'to give the DWP the impression they've been trading is a bad idea, unless they specifically ask them that question as trying to mislead the DWP is worse than the trading itself.'
The OP has unbeknowst to themselves been 'trading,' & I fail to see how them being open about the income they've received can be misconstrued as 'misleading' the DWP, & that in some way that's 'worse than trading itself.'
You'd agreed that it sounded like 'trading.' I'd already said, 'Selling personal possessions however won't affect any benefits.'
You then said that, 'it might trigger a review of your UC is if you're working regularly and exceed 16 hours a week,' which is incorrect.
I believe I stressed, 'There's no problem unless such work contradicts the reason for your LCWRA claim. When you're next reviewed this may be taken into account.'
I'd ask that you read my replies in full as I do yours.
I can't keep up with your comments & editing as it takes me a long time to type. In a situation such as this, a person should report any income, which they have done.
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Hi chiareid,
I mean this politely, I'm not trying to have a go, just commenting things as I see it."I believe I stressed, 'There's no problem unless such work contradicts the reason for your LCWRA claim. When you're next reviewed this may be taken into account.'"
I apologise for overlooking this, I'm quite tired just trying to get on with some things here."The OP has unbeknowst to themselves been 'trading,' & I fail to see how them being open about the income they've received can be misconstrued as 'misleading' the DWP, & that in some way that's 'worse than trading itself.'"
I'm not sure what you mean by this. I did not say that being open about trading is misleading. I said that they should never try and mislead the DWP. But they are not misleading them by failing to volunteer information, only if they lie about or conceal something when asked.
Misleading the DWP is absolutely much worse than this minor sale activity, which I expect probably often gets passed off as sales of personal possessions when it shouldn't. I just think in practice that's what happens. Don't get me wrong, I've never liked hearing of people that knowingly do it whilst claiming benefits and fail to declare. A lot must have gone on over the years what with sites like Vinted and others being so popular. I just don't think that £1k suddenly means someone has become self-employed. They've at best made a few hundred quid in profit. It's a concern yes but very much on a low level.0 -
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But they are not misleading them by failing to volunteer information, only if they lie about or conceal something when asked.
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To be clear, obviously if they are actually running a business or become self-employed and fail to inform the DWP, that's serious. The bar for that is higher than this though.0 -
Hope you're not too worried.
It's obvious you made a mistake in innocence and did the correct thing upon realisation,you'll likely be fine.
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@Jennybyn . I don’t think you are doing anything wrong though if it makes you feel better then go ahead and tell DWP , tbh I can’t see them being to bothered with one off or 2 at least you’re being honest, there are lots out there living double life’s working and claiming benefits and getting house paid . So really Jenny you’re probably worry over nothing, surely DWP are not interested in someone selling Vinted . Please try not to worry 🩷
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