Can I start my own online business offering a service AND claiming the dole?

Hi,
I plan to start my own business doing wedding invitations to get some extra cash in, but I am also claiming the dole at the moment. Can anyone advise in the following:
- can i still claim the dole as making wedding invitations will not earn me alot of cash anyway and its on and off work?
-do i need to register as a sole trader and how do i go about this?
are there any websites to help me on this
The social welfare are always to busy to answer their phones!!!

please?

You don't say if you are claiming JB (Insurance) or JA (means-tested). Different rules apply to both schemes when it comes to self-employment.

1. JB: you cannot claim any day that we work, even if that work is only an hour.
2. JA: your income form self-employment is assessed adn a reduced rate of JA is paid, but you don't sign off for the days you work (as then you would be hit twice for it; once by reduced rate adn twice by losing day's dole)

If it is more beneficial, you can opt to take JA rather than JB.

thank you welfarite. i am JA so i take it i need to get the appropriate forms from the social welfare?

Gems, all youn need to do is tell them your plans and they will review your means. It is likely that you will only be able to project small, if any, profit forward for the next, say, 6 months and they will understnad that. They may leave you on full JA and review it again in 6 or 12 months to look at your accounts then. In the current climate, they are well aware of how hard things are and will give you as much help as they can. Maybe a chat with the Employment Support
Services person (Jobs Facilitator) might be a help. Ask for an appointment. They're very clued in.

thank you welfarite. that is very helpful!!! really appreciate it
i will contact them asap

gems said:

thank you welfarite. that is very helpful!!! really appreciate it
i will contact them asap

Click to expand...

Forgot to tell you to check out Back To Work Enterprise Allowance with them when there; you might qualify for that.

thanks again

Hi
If you have been receiving job seekers benifet for 2yrs you can qualify for the back to work allowance however if not you could qualify for short term back to work allowance.If you have 104 contributions and are in receipt of job seekers benifet this is paid up to a maximun of 12 months.
The best people to ask is your citizens information service,or see their web site hope this helps