and going back to the original question, without knowing you, I'm not sure what to suggest.
i had a fairly unspectacular spell of self employed proof-reading / editing crap to be posted on websites, which was a few quid here and there rather than any serious income while i was between regular jobs / only working part time.
there's a lot of dubious 'self employment' out there which is basically zero-hour work without even having the employment rights of a casual worker. for some reason, the authorities seem less keen on dealing with that than they do with 'benefit fraud'.
and the ones where you end up responsible for financing / insuring / licensing a vehicle (either minicab or van) and the company makes the decision whether to give you any work or not (but charge you inflated contractual penalties if you have a day off sick,
or need a hospital appointment or something) are best avoided.
there was a thread about the practicalities of being self employed a year or two back, looking at the tax angles
here.
i'm so out of touch with the benefits system as not to know where you stand if you're self employed but on a low income - there was a stage when the dole offices were keen to get people to register as self employed, even if you didn't do much work, as it got people off the unemployment figures and on to tax credits instead. i have an idea they have tightened up on this and will poke you with sticks to get more / better paid work / a proper job if you continue to claim benefits while being self employed, but i'm not sure how it all works in practice.
another strand to consider is what insurance/s you would need to do anything on a self employed basis. if you make a balls up as an employee, you run the risk of getting sacked. but if you make a balls up as a self employed person / contractor, you run the risk of getting sued. depending on exactly what you do, you may need to think about professional indemnity / public liability / product liability.
