Self employed and minimum income floor

MJ2755

I am self employed.  Due to the lockdown I had to stop working.  Whilst I had no earnings I received the single person with no dependants amount of just over £409.  I do not qualify to claim housing benefit or any other additional payments.  As soon as it was allowed I started working again but I have lost clients due to their home working.  So, in some months since then, I have qualified for some UC but in months where my net earnings exceed £649 I am not due any UC.  When the minimum income floor is reintroduced I understand I will be assessed as having net earnings equating to 35 hours at minimum wage.  My question is this.... Is there anything to be gained by continuing to submit my monthly figures month on month to UC after MIF comes in.  If the minimum income floor level is used then someone in my circumstances would never qualify for any payment anyway as they would be assuming an income of about £1100 which would easily be too high. 
I am finding the rules hard to follow as I haven't claimed benefits before. But I do feel, even although my income looks likely to be very variable and low for some time that I should just tell them to close my claim once the MIF is applied to me.   I can't see much point in continuing to submit my income and expenses if the award will always be nil.   Can anyone confirm this for me? 

calcotti

I am inclined to agree that if you are told in November (or whenever) that the MIF will be applied there seems little point in continuing a claim in your circumstances when this will always result in no UC payable. Assuming of course that you wish to remain self employed.

Spoonie_Turtle

calcotti said:

I am inclined to agree that if you are told in November (or whenever) that the MIF will be applied there seems little point in continuing a claim in your circumstances when this will always result in no UC payable. Assuming of course that you wish to remain self employed.

Good point.

@MJ2755 The MIF applies to people who are determined to be gainfully self-employed. This is ultimately a subjective decision made by a Decision Maker, but I suggest you have a read about what factors are considered. Depending on the nature of your work and whether you are gaining clients or not, you may be able to decide whether you want to remain self-employed as your only source of income (and thus no support from UC once the MIF is reintroduced), or if you want to look for a job whilst doing some freelance work on the side - not growing your freelance business, but still working for clients you already have. If you have evidence of looking for employment and you are not actively seeking out more self-employed work, they would take that into account.

NedS

Also, don't jump the gun just yet as decisions have not yet been made, or if they have they haven't filtered down to the menials yet.

There is legislation coming into force in September that states that all new claims for gainfully self employed people will automatically be awarded the 12 month startup period. There is no decision yet how that will be applied to people like yourself who already have a claim due to Covid-19.

It may be the case that they apply the MIF to your claim in November IF you are deemed to be gainfully self employed. However, there is also a possibility that you may get a 12 month startup period based on the fact the gainful decision is made after that legislation comes into effect in Sept. There is still no clear guidance on that so we will have to wait and see how it pans out as nothing has been decided / announced yet.

MJ2755

Thank you to everyone who has answered. I guess I will just stay within the UC system meantime and keep entering my income and expenses info every month.  As NedS details, they may even extend the coronavirus suspension of the MIF or include me under their new rules when they review my case.  I am hopeful of finding some replacement clients but it is not easy to do this quickly.  I am just keen to get back to an income where, although not large, I can manage to cover my own life expenses. This is what I was doing before the lock down without needing to take government money.   Thank you to you all for taking time to reply. 

NedS

Absolutely MJ2755. The UC system is there to act as a safety net for you in these unprecedented times, and hopefully it is doing a reasonable job of doing that for you, in at least giving you some income, or a top up whilst you rebuild your business.

I think everyone recognises that each self employed business is different. Some have been impacted a lot harder than others and some will take a lot longer to recover than others. Hopefully policy makers will give UC the flexibility to continue to support those who have been impacted harder and for longer. We will find out in the next month or two but I am hopeful they will not just cut you off at the knees come Oct/Nov by reintroducing the MIF immediately. Best of luck to you in getting things back up and running again.