Desperately need advice

[itsapain]

Hi

Last November my husband and myself were accused of benefit fraud. We were called into housing benefit office and were interviewed seperately, under caution by both housing benefit and pension service.

My husband is 69 years old and I am 49. My husband retired from work at 65 and I have been unwell on and off since 2002 after suffering from cancer. We live in a privately rented house and claimed housing benefit, council tax benefit and hubby also claimed pension credit as we had a short fall in our rent.

I happened upon reborn dolls and began reborning and selling on ebay some time ago, didn't realise I was doing anything wrong to be honest but to cut a long story short, HB and PS said that I was infact running a business and didn't declare it.

We have heard nothing since the interviews until last week when we received a letter from Pension service saying that they were stopping our pension credit as from today 12/7, then today we have received a letter from the Housing benefit who have also said that they are also stopping our HB from today.

We don't know what to do or who to talk to. Any advice much appreciated. Thanks

[loopinlouie]

Were you making a lot of sales?

[itsapain]

Yes, quite a few sales

[loopinlouie]

No offence but I just googled ebay reborn uk and a few sites appeared and they looked like professional shops to me. You can bid or buy now on every offer, not that I am saying this site is yours, there are a number. On such a site I would exptect them to be vat registered or using ebay as a business rate rather than personal. If so I can understand why they are stopping it. You may find they have accessed your accounts via ebay and can trace transactions etc and thats why they are saying you have not declared a business.

 

You will probably receive an overpayment letter when they have assessed the ammount.

 

On all claim forms it asks for income to be declared.

[itsapain]

No, reborn uk isn't my site, i don't have a website, I simply made reborn dolls from home just like a hobby just as many ladies do, and sold them just to continue my hobby as I needed to buy the supplies for them.

we just need to know where we can take advice now and what will be likely to happen.

[itsapain]

what do we do in the mean time regarding paying rent etc? I no longer make dolls.

Yes, at the interview they did have details of all transactions on ebay and paypal details.

[loopinlouie]

Glad that ones not yours;) Its the ammount of sales and the undeclard income they would be looking at, normally on benefits they let you keep the first twenty pounds earnt a week and take the rest.

 

Someone better will come along soon to advise. I would have thought you would have to make new claims as soon as possible.

 

ps. Those dollies are cute xx

[itsapain]

can we make new claims then? are we allowed to do that even though they've stopped the benefits?

[loopinlouie]

Thats where I am not sure, but there is nothing to stop you trying and see what they say. There are some good people on here who work for the dwp and also erika is very knowledgable, You need to make them aware you are not selling anymore and have no income when making new claim.

 

Were you claiming incapacity benefit because of your illness, because if so you would be needing to claim esa now.

Edited July 12, 2010 by loopinlouie

[itsapain]

Thank you for your replies loopinlouie, No I didn't claim anything personally, not incapacity or anything, hubby just claimed HB, Council tax thingy and pension credit. We have no income now, just hubbies state pension which doesn't even cover the rent.

[loopinlouie]

No problem. Keep checking back and hopefully someone will have posted what you need to know.

 

I used to love doing cross stitch an addictive hobby, trouble is I never ever finished anything other than henry VIII and hes still misssing his wives, oopps:)

[itsapain]

, Thanks, thats the first time i've smiled all day. Thanks again.

[insyder]

This comes down to what income you were making and what you told them in the interviews. If you have given them information which would stop the benefits you were claiming then that would certainly be a reason to stop them.

 

You should reclaim now though. The information you provide now will be different to the information during the time you were selling the dolls.

 

Can you give me an idea of the average income you were receiving selling the dolls?

 

Also over which period you were doing it?

[RaeUK]

I'll leave it to far better people than I to give you best advice. It is though a salutory lesson to people on benefits who have a hobby they enjoy. It's easy to lose sight of what you're doing, that someone else may see that hobby as a business.

This may sound facetious, but it's actually not meant to be - quite the reverse - but as you were making these dolls and selling them on ebay (to an extent that attracted DWP attention) - maybe that's telling you something. Maybe you should really start it as a business...

Best wishes and good luck.

Rae

[dragonkeeper]

maybe that's telling you something. Maybe you should really start it as a business....

Rae

 

nice idea Kelcou

 

Could be a winner "itsapain" and good money spinner

 

 

 

 

dk

[cbbc]

Hi Tailspin, How did you come to their attention? It really is worrying how much of our personal information is available to 3rd parties.

I sell the odd thing on Ebay, clothes and books sometimes. I have so many books that I could sell them for a month but would that count as income or a business, I wouldnt be buying them to sell.

[honeybee13]

Hi Tailspin, How did you come to their attention? It really is worrying how much of our personal information is available to 3rd parties.

I sell the odd thing on Ebay, clothes and books sometimes. I have so many books that I could sell them for a month but would that count as income or a business, I wouldnt be buying them to sell.

 

Hi cbbc. I can't quote you chapter and verse, but I would hope that selling something you already own wouldn't normally be income. Maybe the difference for our OP is that she's 'added value' to what she sells and that it was a regular thing.

 

I think I'll stop waffling and check what's on the HMRC website.

 

HB

[honeybee13]

Right, I checked HMRC's website. It's a while since I had any dealings with this, but I think what cbbc is saying comes under Capital Gains Tax. This is the 'exempt' list from HMRC.

 

 

Some assets aren't liable to Capital Gains Tax at all because they’re exempt. These include:

 

• your car
  
• personal possessions worth up to £6,000 each, such as jewellery, paintings or antiques
  
• stocks and shares you hold in tax-free investment savings accounts, such as ISAs and PEPs
  
• UK government or ‘gilt-edged’ securities eg National Savings Certificates, Premium Bonds and loan stock issued by the Treasury
  
• betting, lottery or pools winnings
  
• personal injury compensation
  
• any foreign currency held for your own or your family’s personal use outside the UK (eg if you've made a gain because of a change to the exchange rate)
  

So I don't think we need to worry about selling possessions, but the Revenue are always on the lookout for people who are 'trading', as in buying items to sell on for instance, as I understand it.

 

HB

[cbbc]

Thanks HB. Its a mine field isnt it.

[itsapain]

Hi Insyder,

I'm not sure of an average income over time and they haven't given me a figure of what is owed back to them. We just told the truth at the interviews and I had been reborning since 2007.

 

Hi Kelcou,

This is the problem here, I'm not sure where or when a hobby becomes a business, I guess in hindsight I should have looked into this but didn't think about it at the time. I didn't try to hide anything, even had my name and address on my ebay 'me' page.

Starting as a business scares the living daylights out of me, i know nothing about running a business and don't think I would have made enough money to pay all the bills.

 

Hi Dragonkeeper

As I said above, I don't think my reborning would cover all the bills.

 

Hi CBBC

I'm not sure how we came to their attention, could have just been through my ebay listings. Not sure what the rules are on selling on ebay.

 

Hi Honeybee

Thank you for finding that info but it still all confuses me. What a nightmare!!!

[honeybee13]

'Hi Honeybee

Thank you for finding that info but it still all confuses me. What a nightmare!!!'

 

I know. I don't know anything much about Housing Benefit and how income impacts on that. I understand more [not a huge amount] about income and capital gains taxes.

 

My best, HB

[chloe01]

Thats where I am not sure, but there is nothing to stop you trying and see what they say. There are some good people on here who work for the dwp and also erika is very knowledgable, You need to make them aware you are not selling anymore and have no income when making new claim.

 

Were you claiming incapacity benefit because of your illness, because if so you would be needing to claim esa now.

 

 

Are the people on here you say work for the DWP, spies:?:

Just wondered if it is safe to post on here or not. Don´t want my updates falling into the wrong hands

[loan_ranger]

Are the people on here you say work for the DWP, spies:?:

Just wondered if it is safe to post on here or not. Don´t want my updates falling into the wrong hands

You are joking I hope GS, the real spies wouldn't come on here and tell you the name of their employer, would they now?

Regards, Paul.

[Zara33]

Are the people on here you say work for the DWP, spies:?:

Just wondered if it is safe to post on here or not. Don´t want my updates falling into the wrong hands

Your updates are visible to anyone who has an internet connection! You don't have to be a member of CAG to read posts, anyone could be reading them

[chloe01]

You are joking I hope GS, the real spies wouldn't come on here and tell you the name of their employer, would they now?

Regards, Paul.

 

Yeh, but they don´t give their real names do they, so how do you know whos who. I mean do you think my mother christened me "Goldensyrup" . Can you imagine the laughs around the font

 

You could be an undercover agent for ATOSH, I could be the Chief Executive of the DWP, waiting for some easy pray

 

By the way, where do you get your little Smilies from, my choice is pretty crap. I WONT YOURS NOW

 

GS x