Can anyone help me understand these issues? Sorry it's a long one but if you have the patience to trawl through and notice anything that I may be doing wrong I would be most grateful.
My husband is from abroad when he moved here started his own business. It went well, he works about 30 hours a week including driving time. He pays me as administrator which brings us under the tax threshold and we get working and child tax credits. Our resulting income is minimal but we are not on the breadline. We pay rent and bills, food and petrol and visit my husbands family overseas twice a year. We are not well off but in the current climate I feel quite fortunate. My husband is frustrated at our lack of savings, partly because, like many people from overseas, he believed that the UK was the place he would make his fortune 
Today he went for a meeting with some people who want him to work for them full time. They can only pay him 450 per month, and suggested he rent a house round the corner for 550 a month 
, as he would need to live very near to the place of work to carry out his duties. The position would not leave him enough time to carry on with his current work.
They told him that he would be better off working for them as he would probably get housing benefit, and that we should be getting housing benefit anyway. I have applied 3 times since we have been here and we seem to to over the threshold. They also said that while he wasn't paying tax at the moment, after a few years he would get a bill and probably have to pay about half of what he has earnt since he started. They said there was no point being self-epmployed to earn to little, it only works if you're earning 1000's every month. It sounds to me like these people don't have a clue what they are talking about, and DH and I have had a blazing 2 hour row 
. However, I find the whole self-employed/tax/benefits thing quite complex, and am worried I have overlooked something very important that's going to scupper us. It is me that works out all the tax/benefits stuff.
From my husbands point of view, he feels he works very hard (he does, despite the hours being less than full time, the work itself is very tiring) and isn't getting anywhere. I sympathise, but then most people we know are in a similar situation.
I'm not working at the moment but hope to be in a few months time.
Any advice gratefully received. The enboldened bit is the bit I'm most worried about.