SW and starting new business

my husband and I are both on JSA, he is down as my dependant. He had been running his own business which is now pretty much over. We have been on this for the past year, I have to inform SW if he earns any money through his business which I have been doing and the weekly amt has been reduced as a result.

We have both been looking for work but nothing so far, so I have decided to go back to college next sept to improve my chances and he is looking into starting a new business. We have a small amt of savings left so we decided to bite the bullet and see if we can use this as our seed money as I'm sure a bank wouldn't touch us in this climate!

My question is if he does go ahead with new venture, any money generated in the first few months will have to go straight back in to buy stock etc so we won't be paying ourselves a wage for the forseeable future. Obviously as soon as it's off the ground we will but in the meantime how will this be viewed by SW?

Will they say it's tough luck that we can't pay ourselves a wage and take him off my JSA or do they offer some kind of help to get you off the ground or just leave the weekly amt as it is until we can say he is earning money to go into his own pocket (which is how it currently is)?

I'm all for the new venture but at the same time we have kids and are pushed to the limit financially as it is, any more deductions from SW wouldn't be good, but if we don't try to earn money ourselves we will be forever on the bloody dole as far as I can see!

any advice appreciated!

Have you looked into the BTWEA option for your hubby and BTEA option for yourself? See keypost at top of this forum regarding supports for getting back to work. <ake an appointment to talk to the facilitator at the local SW office before you decide anything and they will go through yoru options with you.