retained worker status

Hi… my client is an A8 national who has been in the UK for several years. She only registered one job which only lasted 6 mths and therefore she cannot claim retained worker status and cannot get JSA
.
After that job she became self employed and has payed tax and N.I. contributions.

She got pregnant and now has a 2 month old baby and has stopped her self employed work.

Is there such a concept as “retained” self employed status whilst on self imposed maternity leave ?

Would she get Housing Benefit ?

Her partner has left her and she is being evicted for rent arrears.

Have a look at CIS/616/2010.

In CIS/1042/2008 it was accepted that a self employed A8 national who had taken a period of leave from her self employment due to maternity still counted as a self employed person during that period.

The decision is here: CIS/1042/2008

The Commissioner said:

5.  As the Secretary of State has conceded, the tribunal went wrong in law, because the 2004 Regulations do not apply to the self-employed. The Secretary of State has also conceded that, as the claimant intended to resume her self-employment after her maternity period, she remained a self-employed person under regulation 21AA(4)(b) of the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987, saying: ‘I can see no difference in treatment that would be afforded to an EEA national who was an employed person intending to return to work after maternity leave to a self-employed person.