HB overpayment. 

good morning.

Client on WTC, CTC, and HB - self employed with at least 2 means of income, if not 3.

my question is fairly simple - for HB is the following true - because i know for HMRC this is not a problem ...

“
With regards to any expenses you have had for the yoga business, for benefit purposes, they cannot be offset against any profit from another business, only from any income derived for the yoga business. As you have already been advised in the past, each business must be kept separate for benefit purposes.  This is why we had asked you to provide self employed proformas for each of your businesses.  As you don’t have any income from Yoga at the moment, that income remains at nil,
“

income from one means has been used as expenses against another type of income,
i.e. - a loss made in one of them, and a profit made in the other - now for HMRC, you would add this all up at the end of the year and get the total.

but HB have issued an over payment, because of the above.

this is quite technical - and not a crisis - but i would like to set things straight for her

many thanks

I am barely awake, but I think the answer might be reg 39(10) HB Regs:

(10) For the avoidance of doubt where a claimant is engaged in employment as a self-employed earner and he is also engaged in one or more other employments as a self-employed or employed earner any loss incurred in any one of his employments shall not be offset against his earnings in any other of his employments.

(The phrasing of ‘for the avoidance of doubt’ presumably referring to the fact that the rest of the provision talks about “the employment” in the sense of being a specific engagement and of expenses related to that engagement)

Now that’s what you call service - 24-hour help desk

Sorry for the rude awakening.

The officer has stated,

“
I appreciate that with no income from the Yoga business, any expenses you might now have from developing that business must come from other income sources.  As you have mentioned, the profit pot of another business.  However for benefit purposes we are unable to allow a yoga expense to be offset against the income from your other business.  Furthermore any expense derived from the setting up or expanding of a business are not allowable for benefit purposes.
“

- so it looks like we’re agreeing with the council?

Many thanks

I should have checked the handbook - but page 400 confirms this ...