I've been wrong Thankfully becky was here to get me back on track!

MM, while I / we appreciate your reasons for wanting to PM a contributor on here, it's better to try and keep your questions out in the open if you can, as the advice offered also helps those of us also fighting a similar PCN.

You can declare yourself self-employed and, as long as you are "working" less than 16 hours/week, you can still claim full JSA. I did this for 10 months before going onto being fully self-employed and running my own new small start-up business. When I was claiming JSA, everything I earned from my self-employment over £5/week had to be declared but, of course, this can be offset against any expenses. Being self-employed for 2 days a week means that your job search activity is limited to just three days a week, so you can spend some time researching, putting together your portfolio, etc. You don't have to earn anything from that self

Ignore it for now, and wait to see if anyone makes contact. Keep the money you want to use to repay it, set aside though. So when wonga ( not a dca) come calling, you can pay them the cash in one lump sum.

Paying a fixed penalty notice is NOT an admission of guilt, it actually says on the notice "payment of the penalty involves no admission of guilt...", therefore you are not admitting your own guilt at all. You really shouldn't say people are talking nonsense re the law when you don't understand it yourself.

the claim is stayed dx