As we are a central policy team, we do not have access
to claimant records and therefore cannot offer advice on specific cases.
You should discuss your query about how to record your earnings with your
Personal Advisor.

The treatment of self-employed earnings is set out in
the Jobseeker's Allowance Regulations 1996. Regulation 95
states:

(2) Where the claimant’s earnings consist of any items
to which paragraph (2A) applies, those earnings shall be taken into
account over a period equal to such number of weeks as is equal to the number
obtained (and any fraction shall be treated as a corresponding fraction of a
week) by dividing the earnings by the amount of jobseeker’s allowance which
would be payable had the payment not been made plus an amount equal to the total
of the sums which would fall to be disregarded from the payment under Schedule 6
and Schedule 6A (earnings to be disregarded) as is appropriate in the claimant’s
case.

(2A) This
paragraph applies to–

(a) royalties or other sums paid as a consideration for
the use of, or the right to use, any copyright, design, patent or trade mark;
or

(b) any payment in respect of
any–

(i) book registered under the Public Lending Right
Scheme 1982; or

(ii) work made under any international public lending
right scheme that is analogous to the Public Lending Right Scheme 1982, where
the claimant is the first owner of the copyright, design, patent or trade mark,
or an original contributor to the book or work concerned.

A
copy of the Regulations are available online here: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/a11-4001.pdf

I hope this
is of assistance

Samantha Tomlinson

JSA & UC Liaison Team
Working Age
Benefits Integration Team
Operational Excellence
Directorate

www.dwp.gov.uk

Please consider the environment before
printing

—–Original
Message—–
From: Erik Ribsskog [mailto:eribsskog@gmail.com]

Sent: 28 June 2012 14:02
To: JCP SHEFFIELD ROCKINGHAM HOUSE
JSA GUIDANCE TEAM
Cc: CONTACT-US
Subject: Re: FW: Royalties
from book-writing-restricted

Hi,

yes, I also have a hobby web-shop, (which I have to practice on my
web-design-skills, since I've studied IT).

This web-shop I'm doing book-keeping on as adviced by Ingeus, and
I've shown that I've lost a bit money on this web-shop, to the
Jobcentre.

(The Jobcentre says it's a hobby).

Can I put the royalties as income for my e-business, since I'm kind
of self-employed as a hobby?

And like I wrote in my first e-mail, I think I've read somewhere that
royalties shouldn't be treated as regular income, so money earned from
royalties shouldn't be deducted from the Job Seekers
Allowance.

Couldn't you please show me where it says about royalites,
in writing somewhere, so that I know that this isn't just how you think it
is.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Best regards,

Erik Ribsskog

On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 1:50 PM, JCP SHEFFIELD
ROCKINGHAM HOUSE JSA GUIDANCE TEAM <SHEFFIELDROCKINGHAMHOUSE.JSAGUIDANCETEAM@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk>
wrote:

Thank
you for your email to the Jobcentre Plus Contact Us website about the
treatment of royalties under Jobseeker's Allowance rules.

I can
confirm that fees and royalties for published items are treated as earnings,
no matter how often or infrequently they are paid. You must therefore let
your Jobcentre know about any payments you receive when you next attend a
Jobsearch Review or an adviser interview.

Some of the earnings you
receive will be disregarded. The amount of the disregard will depend on your
circumstances, for example single claimants will have £5 of their earnings
disregarded, whilst those with a partner have a £10 disregard. Earnings in
excess of the disregard are taken into account against benefit entitlement.
This means that for every £1 earned, £1 of JSA will be deducted.

I
hope this is of assistance.

Samantha Tomlinson
JSA & UC
Liaison Team
Working Age Benefits Integration Team
Operational
Excellence Directorate

www.dwp.gov.uk
Please consider the environment before
printing

—–Original Message—–
From: Erik Ribsskog
[mailto:eribsskog@gmail.com]
Sent: 27 June
2012 17:38
To: CONTACT-US
Subject: Royalties from
book-writing

Hi,

I've written some Norwegian books
now, as a hobby, since last automn, and it looks like I'm going to get at
least a bit royalties, from Createspace, (Amazon), later this
summer.

I seem to remember from filling out the Jobseers
Allowance-fom, (JSA3, I think it was called), that royalties from
book-writing, aren't supposed to be deducted, from the Jobseekers
Allowance.

Isn't this right?

Is there a web-page on the
internet where I can read more about this?

Thanks in advance for
any help!

Yours sincerely,

Erik
Ribsskog
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