Universal Credit and "self employed" telesales con

PlanHappy

Hi,

My mother has got herself into a huge mess and has had to sign on for Universal Credit to avoid losing her home. She's been accepted, so now she's applying for jobs left right and centre. She ended up somewhat mistakenly applying for a commission only telesales job, which she has of course been offered. This seems massively dodgy to me. I asked her to find out whether they pay minimum wage for all hours worked - they said they don't, and they get around their legal obligation to do so by calling her "self-employed". I know commission-only jobs exist but I don't think this is a legitimate job; at the very least I don't think she will earn any money if she takes it. The problem is, from what I understand of Universal Credit, she gets sanctioned if she turns down any job. Is there a way of her declining the job without being sanctioned, given that it is technically self-employment and she almost certainly won't earn enough money to cover even her fuel costs?

Icequeen99

This is a real concern of mine with UC.

She probably will be ok for the first 12 months (in the 'start-up' period for self-employment but she will be hit by the minimum income floor after that.

I would suggest she speak to her work coach and explain the situation and run the circumstances through the HMRC employment status web tool and take a copy of the result to her adviser.

IQ

konark

The real con is Universal Credit.

She can refuse it because it's not a specific job which must pay minimum wage.