Hi Fudgy I found you post interesting an may be able to offer some relevant advice, based on my recent experience. I took early retirement a couple of years ago, but still do a bit of paid work (a day here or there) if it interests me, so I have to declare a small amount of 'work income' in my tax returns. I've been doing my Self Assessment on-line for quite a few years and I find it pretty easy, so don't be daunted by the prospect. There's lots of help available; e.g. from Citizens Advice Bureau or the HMRC Self Assessment Helpline. If it's the first time you've filled in a Self Assessment form then it might be an idea to:- 1. use the paper form they will/should send you, rather than doing it on-line for the first year, as the paper form gives you a physical thing to work with and is more 'user friendly' in terms of being able to flip back and forth between the various pages. 2. get a suitably qualified & experienced helper to guide you through the process, not a 'know-it-all' who only has experience of their own tax return. A helper will be really important in advising you which parts of the forms are not relevant to you and can be ignored. Unfortunately the official written guidance 'How to complete your Self Assessment' assumes a fair knowledge of the tax system and often left me wondering whether or not a particular section was relevant to me; most of them were not As for National Insurance, I spoke to the tax office and was advised to register myself as self-employed, even though I only do 10 to 20 days paid work a year. The point is that it gets me on their books and makes sure I pay the correct Class 2 National Insurance contributions which, in turn, ensures that I retain my eligibility for a full State Pension (I'm currently below the pension age). And it's not expensive for me. As I have very low income from paid-work, these contributions are very low (just £2.80 per week if your profits are under £5,965 a year). See this web page for info: www gov uk self-employed-national-insurance-rates. I also found it useful to register with HMRC as a 'Sole Trader' rather than set up a fully blown business, which was just not worth it if only work a few days a year. So my Business name is 'My Name' (Sole Trader) and I use this on any invoices that I send to the people who employ me. See this web page for info: www gov uk set-up-sole-trader Hope this is useful for you. Best of Luck BK [NB Sorry about the modified web-links. The forum will not allow me to post proper links till I have more than 10 posts. I'm new to this forum, so have only made 2 so far]

Hi panhandj. That's excellent news and very encouraging. Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply. Much appreciated. BK

Hi pandhandj, I'd be interested in the outcome of your negotiations with Npower/ Ombudsman. I'm having similar issues now (2016) Did you reach a resolution? Thanks in advance