[Creon]

Not sure about elsewhere, but here in the UK there's pretty good welfare support for people making an attempt at self-employment. I've just come off a 6 month period of "Test Trading" where my weekly entitlements went up £15, and I was allowed to earn as much as I could. It's a little tricky to get onto, but if you can get onto the New Deal, there's a self-employment route which offers support in terms of business education, and of course, the financial support which is a good foundation. The only problems I found with this route is that you have to know the benefits system better than the employees at the JCP, as it's a lesser known route to take. If you're reasonably serious about it and have your shit together, for the most part, there's no reason people can't find the freedom to persue creative endeavours full time, at least for a while. Also, when the 6 month period is up, you'll be entitled to housing and working tax credits (worth around £50 a week). If you've got cheap rent, it should cover the whole deal, more or less. Just depends if you've got any qualms about claiming...