Self Employed Overnight Subsistence

[roundthebend]

Hi all … I hope someone can help put me out of my misery of sleepless nights and panic attacks!!

For the last 8 years myself and my partner have been self employed supplying the products we make to independent retail stores. We were doing pretty well and expanding nicely until the very sudden downturn in the economy at which point our orders stopped dead (as though someone had turned a tap off) and we lost our home, workshops, website and possibly our sanity.

We are trying to get back on top but what is worrying me is that I can’t afford an accountant and I’m not sure if what we’re now doing is OK.

Basically we are claiming housing benefit and working tax credits while trying to get the business back on track (although I doubt it will ever be what it previously was). We are living in a 2 berth grotty caravan behind a pub with our dog and 2 birds while we use part of a friends single garage for manufacture!! … Housing benefit is £45 per week!

We cannot afford to exhibit at trade shows and so as we produce a collection we are loading it onto our 18 year old decrepit van (as we no have storage facilities) and heading off on the road selling directly to shops from the back of the van. We have to travel around 300 miles just to get us to the areas we need to sell to and then in order to keep costs to a minimum we stay on the road until the collection has sold.

At first we were staying on camp sites but even that has proved to be too expensive and so we sleep wherever we can … at the side of the road usually but occasionally on motorway services so we can use the showers etc.

My question is what is reasonable to claim as overnight subsistence whilst away from home. When we’re at home I spend around £50 per week at the supermarket. While we are away however, it is impossible to live on this amount unless we ate chip butties for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I seem to be spending an average of £120 per week whilst on the road … would this be reasonable? It sounds a lot but £18 per day for two of us when water is around £3 of that … Would it be reasonable to say that the difference ie. £70 is reasonable?

Thanks for looking and I hope someone can help.

[mullet]

This is a duplicate thread, please see the other one with the same title and respond there otherwise it will get confusing.