Self Employed and Students

Self Employed

Can I apply for benefit if I am self-employed?

You can apply for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit if you are self employed. We will work out your benefit using you and your partners income, savings and personal circumstances. To help us assess your earnings you must fill in a self-employment form which is attached to the benefit application form, without this we will not be able to work out your benefit.

How will you work out my Benefit?

We work out your Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit using your and your partners income, savings and personal circumstances. As you are self employed we must work out your weekly earnings (after tax) from your business and add this to any other income which you and your partner receive.

What about savings and personal expenses?

We will add back in any savings you take from the business or any household or personal expenses that you pay from the business, when we work out the profit of the business. Your weekly earnings for benefit purposes are worked out using your share of the profit of the business.

Will you use my latest accounts if my current trading position has changed since they were done?

We will normally use your latest accounts as these will usually give an accurate picture of your trading position. However if your business activity has recently been less it may be possible to work out your benefit using more up-to-date figures. You must still send us an original set of accounts with your application for benefit, or if we have asked for them, but you should also complete the self employed form giving us details of your income and spending for the period following your accounts.

Why do you need the extra information asked for on the form?

If you are self-employed, we need to ask you more questions about your business so we can work out your benefit. If you have had accounts prepared for your last financial year, you must send us an original set of these. You will still need to answer some of the questions on the self -employed form. If you do not have any prepared accounts we also need to ask you about your business expenses and earnings. If you have not been trading for a full year, we need you to give us the information for the time since you started your business up to now.

How will you work out my earnings?

To work out your weekly earnings for benefit purposes, we first need to work out your business profit before taxation. We will take away any amounts you have had to spend to run your business. We do not take away any personal or household expenses or savings. We also do not take away the cost of buy or improving fixed assets in the business. We will then work out your weekly income based on this and take away Income Tax, National Insurance and 50% of any private pension contributions you make to give us the amount we need to work out your benefit. To calculate your weekly benefit entitlement we will also include any other income as well as your net profit described above.

Students

Most full-time students cannot claim Housing Benefit because the Government expects them to use other money like their grant, student loan or access funds to pay their rent. You may be able to claim if you:

are a part-time student;
are a student who is responsible for a child or young person (as part of a couple or on your own);
are a single foster parent;
are 60 or over;
get Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance;
meet the conditions for the Disability Premium or Severe Disability Premium (these are allowances we use to work out benefit for people who meet certain conditions);
have not been able to work for 28 weeks; qualify for a disabled student's allowance because you are deaf;
are under 19 and not in higher education;
have a partner who is not a student (they need to claim, not you); have to interrupt your course, with the approval of the college or university, due to illness or caring responsibilities.

If you come from outside Europe you will probably not be able to claim any Housing Benefit, even if you are in one of the groups of students who can. It depends on the conditions under which you came into this country. For any student from abroad we will need information about your immigration status before we can deal with your Housing Benefit claim. If you are a student from Europe, you can only claim Housing Benefit if you fall into one of the categories of students who can.

Even if you fall into one of the groups of students who can claim Housing Benefit, you cannot claim if you live in a property owned by the university or college you go to. For example, if you live in a hall of residence or flat that the university or college owns and rents to you, you cannot claim Housing Benefit.

As well as your fully completed claim form, we need the following documents to assess your claim.