Any legal way I can earn this £250 without being forced from legacy to UC?

[gjog]

Hello,

Would be grateful if anyone knows or can point me towards an answer please -

We are on legacy benefits since my DH was made redundant two years ago. We are both registered Carers as both our DC are disabled and receiving DLA. My DH used his redundancy pay towards re-training over past two years in a role he can do self-employed to fit around our children's needs.

I have been offered a one-off piece of work on a freelance basis to earn £250. I'm not remotely interested in the money as it's purely a one-off, but I want the work experience. I've asked if I can do the work for free but this isn't an option as there needs to be accountability for safeguarding.

I am hoping in a year's time to register as self-employed to do work like this, but I can't do it yet because my youngest child is out of school and I can't commit to work until DC is back in school.

As soon as I register self-employed (or DH does) we will automatically migrate from legacy to UC, with no income for first 5 weeks, plus then all benefits via UC will relate to what I earn s/e each month.

This is a heck of a lot of aggro for £250 when I won't then be earning anything else for a year.

Is there any legal way round this, ie for me to be paid £250 without it triggering us to transfer to UC?

I know there is a £1k threshold where you don't have to register as s/e under this limit.

But it would still be benefit fraud to accept any income and not declare it, wouldn't it?

Thank you for reading and any advice!

I don't believe this is correct.

Tax credits shouldn't be affected because income for tax credits is averaged over the year. Your risk is that your earnings could be high enough to stop your housing benefit. In that case, you wouldn't be able to reclaim housing benefit and would need to move over to UC. You cannot turn down the earnings, nor can you receive it as gift vouchers. You do have to declare it to housing benefit, even if it's below £1000

Thank you for this.

I think I'm back at square one ..,.

Be careful OP with some of the information on this thread. You have to declare income for benefit purposes, thats not the same as declaring income for tax purposes.

HB and CTR are directly means tested and one off earnings of £250 need to be reported to the Council. They may affect Carers Allowance as over the weekly limit but check the rules as there is some flex for earnings that fluctuate etc.

I'm not sure I understand why, given you have a Tax Credits claim open, a move to (self) employment would trigger migration to UC but given that TC claimants are being teed up for early migration I may be missing something.

Seeing as you are (admirably) concerned about doing the right thing, I'd speak to someone at the benefits office directly. Then you have an answer from the horses mouth.

Or try CAB?

Have you checked whether you would actually be better off on UC?
you can get an advance to prevent the 5 week wait

You may actually be better off on UC as you currently are only getting basic benefits You should do a calculation on entitled to. You can claim an advance payment to tide you over and your Carers claim will continue alongside UC (Carers is deducted £ for £ of your UC entitlement). Carers allowance you can earn around £140 per week without it affecting your benefit but you would need to declare it to them

You do need to advise ca, ctc and HB that you’ve started self-employment HOWEVER this does not trigger you to have make a claim for UC.

You may be better off on UC but that’s your choice to claim it.

I’d give them a very good friend / trusted relatives bank account details and ask them to withdraw me the cash…

Ask them to donate it directly to a charity on your behalf?