benefits and sort-of self employed

[wrongagain]

hi there,
since I had to give up my contracted job in October I have been receiving income support, however I now have been offered employment by a woman that owns her own business, under the agreement that she will pay me and I will fill in my own tax return.

the issue is at the moment the business only has 1-2 clients per week meaning I am only working 2-3 hours per week and earning £20 approx. However, the business is building up slowly, however I will never earn a great amount of money from this. The question is what do I tell the benefits people? as work isn't a lot or guaranteed will my benefits be cut??
many thanks

I would look very carefully into whether you can actually be self employed in this role or not. In generally if you are working for one person, can not set your own hours and can not substitute someone else instead of yourself you can not be self employed.
Don't know about the benefits - sorry.

basically I'm training to be a dog trainer, the woman is disabled and is aiming for me to eventually take over the lessons while she still does the lesson planning and assessment bits. she will be paying me in cash which I then give a receipt that we both have a copy of so I know how much I've earned and she know how much she's paid me, then I fill in my own tax return. so am I employed, self employed or something else entirely?!? thanks

If you are working when she tells you, only being paid by her and cannot send someone else instead of you them I would feel you are employed. If you buy the business and the clients pay you direct, you can set the class times and send another trainer then you would be self employed.

In these circumstances you should be paid as a worker or employee via PAYE. Look up something called the workers test.

To be self-employed you need to work for multiple clients. You can't just do a tax return - you have to register as a business eg as a sole trader, and pay self-employed NI. You have 3 months to tell HMRC if you are freelance or they can fine you.

As a self-employed person I would expect you to invoice her for the money, also.