5th December 2011, 05:21 PM
kevin wooldridge Wrote:Class 1 NI contributions are based on income so if you earn less than a certain amount neither you nor the employer pays anything.?136/week. Which approximately equals minimum wage for 3 days. Employer NI is 13.8%, which is quite a saving if you choose to employ two part-time workers rather than one full-time one. So that's nice...
Quote:Whether it is economically viable to be on the dole and on a ZHC is another matter, particularly with regard to housing benefit and maybe tax credits....if you income from ZHC takes you above the level of dole and cost of your rent etc, good. If it doesn't very very bad!!Housing benefit is means tested, so a ZHC worker would still get that if they earned a low enough wage (so, probably yes unless the work is practically constant and they don't have kids). Apparently, the thing to do is go in and talk to the Council, and give them an estimate of expected earnings. They probably will then require the worker to submit a form every month or every three months or somesuch, explaining what was earned in the preceeding period. That way, the council will carry on paying Housing Benefit and work out the precise figures retrospectively. So, controlling the information supply is the key point. If the council Housing Benefit office find out from Jobcentre Plus that there's been a change in circumstances (i.e. any work at all on a ZHC), they'll suspend the claim, and it'll take until after the next rent day to get it restarted.
That's based on the experience of self-employed chippies I know anyway. As with all benefit issues, YMMV based on the local council, the circumstances of the job, how well the work is understood, how unpalatable the sandwiches in the benefit office workers' canteen were that day, etc.