JSA and self employed - is it worth it?

[binks123]

Hi all.

Following the advice given me here i'm posting this in this section.

I've been made redundant at the end of february. Now i'm receiving JSA-contribution based(i was declined income based due to my right of residency at the time of my claim) and i can't find work in my field at my town. As i'm unemployed for almost 4mts now, i figured that i can start my own business. Ideally i'd like to open LTD company, but all the paperwork and the cost of hiring accountant to do all of it for me are too high, so i thought that i'll start as Self Employed. But now the question is is it worth to do that. I will start from the beginning and i know that when i'll do that my own business will start to made enough profits to live from it after some time.

Now i'm receiving JSA and as far as i know, when i start my own business i won't be eligible to claim it any more. So if money from JSA letting me buy food will dry, i won't have any income(for some time).I have started to do some courses to have any certificates at al in hope that having those will increase my chances of getting a job. l'm doing them through Learningdirect and due to me being on JSA they are free. I've enrolled to ESOL and again because of JSA i'll have to pay only for exams, i thought that i'll use the fact that i'm claiming JSA to do some courses which i'll have to pay a lot if i won't have JSA. I realize that if i start there are no guarantee that i'll make any profit at all, but i'm prepared for that.

So advice me please is it worth to go for Self Employed in my situation?

[maestro451]

Hi

 

You can claim workinh credits when you go self employed but they use your income based on the last tax year so as you were employed you may not be entitled too much but next year you should be, theres also a return to work credit but I think thats for income based jsa only.

[andydd]

There is limited help avilable if you wish to become self employed, but no, you wont get as much as you do on JSA but of course it all depends on how your business does, there are lots of schemes/help avilable if you wish to set up your own company/become self employed but the work/pay really does need to be there otherwuise its a bit of a gamble, Im sure there will be someone at the JC who can point you in the direction of people who can give you more help.As for exam costs, ask the JC if they will pay these, I did two IT exams at my local college (at a cheap rate of £49 each) and after much persueding, the JC paid for these, and the day after I passed the 2nd one I was offered a job :)Andy