Determining income, expenses and profit for self-employed Housing Benefit claimants remains a complex area and continues to generate problems during assessment, such as delays in payments while documents are awaited and other information is obtained. It can often result in rent arrears accruing and cause concern for claimants, and also for housing management debt advisors and recovery staff alike.

However, it is probably fair to say that dealing with self-employed cases is usually not one of the most popular tasks in HB/CTB assessment! This is usually because of two main difficulties:
(a) understanding the accounts sent in, and (b) believing them!

The majority of accounts sent in are obviously true ones, but it is a regular problem knowing how little income someone might realistically be living on. A good understanding of the issues, appropriate advice, and a structured approach to assessing the income of a self-employed claimant can alleviate the difficulties often experienced in the administration of claims for self-employed people, and also for dealing with changes in their circumstances. This Workshop will look at the issues self-employed claimants face, will provide assessment staff with greater confidence in their work, and provide income management and arrears recovery staff with a better understanding of how claims are assessed.

This Workshop is designed to help overcome all these problems, and will be ideal for HB assessors, financial advisors, managers, appeals staff, and many others who advise self-employed claimants on their benefits – including front-line staff in a variety of housing and benefit advice organisations. The Workshop does this by offering a seven step structured approach to assessing self-employed cases, and covers: 

•  Who counts as self-employed?
•  Picking an assessment period for both longer-standing self-employed claimants and those new to self-employment;
•  How people keep their accounts;
•  What does and what doesn’t count as income;
•  Allowable and non-allowable expenses;
•  Believable and non-believable accounts;
•  Sole traders, business partners, and franchisees;
•  A look at Company Director issues;
•  Stock movements and how they are shown in accounts;
•  Calculating notional deductions for Tax and National Insurance;
•  Dealing with pension contributions;
•  Calculating the net profit that is used to assess HB/CTB.

Delegates should particularly benefit from the detailed notes and various exercises that will be provided which are designed to look specifically at different sets of common accounts – such as a child minder and a business partnership. Exercises will also include how to choose an assessment period and the calculation of Tax and National Insurance.

By means of presentations, discussions and exercises our presenter, John Zebedee (presenter of over 2,000 HB courses!), will provide a fact-filled day covering the most up-to-date information available. John has now been providing a course on this subject for over 20 years, and delegates will appreciate the way he shows how the difficult rules can be easily put into practice.

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Booking Fee: £190 + V.A.T. Includes lunch, course notes and refreshments.

BOOK THREE PLACES AT THE SAME VENUE AND RECEIVE A FOURTH PLACE FREE! ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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