Training Course  –  self-employed earners

Hbinfo is delighted to offer this course which looks at the assessment of self-employed earners for Housing Benefit & Council Tax Benefit.  This course is ideal for Assessors (whether new, or seeking a refresher), Team Leaders and Quality Assurance officers.  The day to day practicalities of assessing self-employed earners are addressed, as is the relevance and application of the regulations, case law and the decisions of Commissioners and, now, Upper Tribunal Judges.

The programme will include:

Summary of the steps in assessing self-employed earners
Establishing whether someone is self-employed
“Remunerative work” – the relevance of the amount of earnings
Information and evidence for assessing self-employed earnings

Income – the assessment period

–    general
–    special cases (e.g. seasonal earners, royalty payments)
date from when income should be used

Income – assessing what counts as income

Expenses of the business – allowable expenses (excluding tax, NI & pension contributions)

–    examples of allowable expenses
–    people working from home
–    people using shared premises for their business
expenses covering both private and business purposes

Expenses of the business – non-allowable expenses

–    examples of non-allowable expenses
–    drawings
–    money used for paying tax or national insurance
unreasonable expenses

The earnings figure to be used in calculating tax, national insurance and private pension contributions
Working out income tax
Working out national insurance
Non-dependants who are self-employed – how should their earnings be assessed?
Main HB/CTB regulations for assessing self-employed earnings
Case law and decisions of Commissioners / Upper Tribunal Judges

In addition, there will be hands-on exercises, most of which are based on real cases.

Fees are £275 per delegate, £375 for non-members.  Plus VAT