Dealing With Housing Benefit Claims From The Self-Employed & The Small Business Company Director

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With a growing number of HB claims from the self-employed, and especially the usual increases that occurs at the start of the summer, we have had numerous requests for this full one day Workshop which looks at all the important issues and rules relating to dealing with housing benefit claims from this specific client group. With many people setting up a Limited Company for their small or home based business particular reference will be given to dealing with claims received from ‘Company Directors’.

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We are pleased to offer this Workshop in partnership with HBInfo

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Manchester - Wednesday, 29th February, 2012.

Manchester Central Premier Inn, Bishopsgate, City Centre Hotel. 

London - Wednesday, 7^th March, 2012.

The Kingsley by Thistle Hotel, Bloomsbury Way, in the Russell Square / Bloomsbury area.

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

Examples of issues which are becoming more common include dealing with HB applications from: 

• People who are finding that may need to claim for the first time due to jobs and income changes where they suddenly find themselves in a lower income job, part time working, or unemployed;
• People who have to make a sudden or unexpected claim (such as trades people in the building industry finding themselves temporarily unable to work for a period due to a lengthy bad weather in winter for example);
• People suffering from a period of personal or family illness;

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! Whilst the vast majority of accounts that are submitted are obviously going to be true and accurate ones, it is still a regular problem knowing how little income someone might realistically be living on at any specific time. For example, people may be willing and able to quickly provide balance sheets, etc., but not necessarily so with their profit and loss account (which is the main item needed for assessment of HB!).

An increasingly common problem is assessing a claim for someone who has a small or home based business, and set this up as a Limited Company with he/she as the Company Director. The Workshop will therefore carefully look at the following issues and how they may impact on a Housing Benefit claim:

• Understanding limited companies, private companies and trade names
• Balance sheets and valuing company assets
• Dealing with directors; from loans to valuing capital
• Companies in receivership and administration
• Losses
• Multiple occupations

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 that different types of 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. Delegates should particularly benefit from the detailed notes and various exercises that will be provided.

The content of this Workshop has been jointly researched and developed by Andy Thurman (Specialist HB Trainer) and Peter de la Mothe (Policy Director of HBInfo). For smaller groups the Workshops are normally presented just by Andy Thurman, but for large groups he will be assisted by Peter. The number of delegates attending each Workshop date will determine the need for either one or two trainers to be present on any particular day.

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Booking Fee: £220 + V.A.T.

Includes lunch, comprehensive course notes and refreshments.

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