Re: Evade the taxes
Well my guess would be that he paid up everything, but that because he has earned more than the limit he wouldnt be eligible for WTC. It is based on your income to date in a given tax year, not what you are earning now.
He may be eligible for SSP or not. Although I would say that the idea is that the government will only support you when you have nothing of your own. That is the idea behind the benefits system. If you have your own house they would expect you to use that capital to support yourself.
However I would say that it does seem ridiculous to do so, as the market is so poor at the moment, etc. Therefore it should be income based to the point of the value of your house, and you should be given the income based JSA, and then expected to pay it back when in work (i.e. remortgage your house), having equity in your house is not a liquid asset, not at the moment anyway.
Having been in a similar position I can tell you it is no fun:
I had worked for 15 years before being made redundant the first time. I was out of work for 4 months, one of those months I didn't claim benefits/sign on. Then worked for another 19 months. Hence when I was made redundant recently, I didnt qualify for contributions based JSA for missing one month of NIC class 1's in the last two tax years.
I rent a house, but own a house that I rent out. The rent income is the cost of the mortgage. When I got made redundant I tried to sell the house with tenants in, but sale value offers were less than the mortgage value of house.
When I went to the benefits office they said that:
a) no income based JSA as the house was "worth" 17k more than the mortgage.
b) no housing benefit as I had either i) a house to move back to (you can't if you have incumbent tenants), ii) I could sell house and make 17k profit.
c) no WTC as I had earned above the yearly threshold
d) no other entitlements than child benefit
Hence now I have a contracting job, I will eb ensuring I pay as little tax as possible and will be putting away my own "national insurance"..