Self employed and benefits??

[Monzter]

I have a friend who is self employed. Generally he does really well for work as he's good at what he does, however weather has a massive impact on his ability to work and with the snow last year he couldn't work at all for about 10 weeks.

When he went to the job centre he was told he couldn't claim anything at all, despite the fact he is supporting a family and looking for work to tide him over. He really isn't one for forms anyway and came away with the 'stuff them then!' attitude

Somehow with bits and pieces and what little bit they had put by, they managed to survive but it's left them with debts. He's panicking though in case it happens again though because they have no back up now and no chance of saving anything whilst paying back the debts run up then.

Apparently he hadn't paid enough NI whilst he was self employed??

Does anyone know anything about this? If people who have never worked and therefore never paid NI can claim, why can't someone who has? Is there anything he could/should do now to make sure he can claim in future?

Many thanks for any info

[enaid]

Re: Self employed and benefits??

Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
This is based on your income and savings. You may get this if you have not paid enough NICs (or you've only paid contributions for self-employment) and you're on a low income.

Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance


This is a benefit checker it gives an idea if you can claim things and also what you need to do to claim


Check your benefit entitlement - Turn2us

[strangewayofsavin]

Re: Self employed and benefits??

Just to add to the loverly Enaid's post, reguardless of entitlement to benefits, the self employed are able to claim NI credits for certain periods where no work is available.