Declaring Clinical Trial income while on UC

Cefalu24

I am self-employed and have just started receiving Universal Credit (UC). I am about to attend a second health check for a clinical trial, and if everything goes well, I could earn up to £4,000 for participating as a human test subject for a few weeks. Would I need to declare this income as unearned on UC? If so, how would it affect my UC? 

Brie

my understanding is that this is income and therefore needs to be declared potentially stopping your UC for a bit.

singhini

Might be worth you reading this HMRC Employment Manual 
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim71105

Seems like it depends if the payments are "reasonable" including costs of travel and subsistence (then no)

However should the sums paid exceed those reasonable expenses then the excess may fall to be chargeable to tax as Miscellaneous Income, potentially giving rise to personal tax liabilities of the individuals which should be notified to the HMRC under Self Assessment.

Even better would be to ask the people doing the clinical trial (and if need be write to HMRC)

singhini

Ignore my post - i just noticed your taking about UC and I'm thinking HMRC 
apologies 

Spoonie_Turtle

From the guidance chapters (H3, H4, H5) it looks like it will most likely be classed as income.  The only question is what type - in the chapter about employed income there are some examples of people being paid for participation on advisory boards / panels, and those are the closest I've found to the situation of a clinical trial.  [However I didn't read the chapters thoroughly so it is possible I've missed something else.]
Here's the page linking to all the guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advice-for-decision-making-staff-guide

jadex

It is an income.
It will affect your UC: it will reduce your UC payment by 55% taper rate (up to NIL) and, if not spent, it may become capital for the next assessment period.
You may also not get £4k as a lump sum, which could affect your UC payments for more than one assessment period.

HillStreetBlues

Spoonie_Turtle said:

From the guidance chapters (H3, H4, H5) it looks like it will most likely be classed as income.  The only question is what type - in the chapter about employed income there are some examples of people being paid for participation on advisory boards / panels, and those are the closest I've found to the situation of a clinical trial.  [However I didn't read the chapters thoroughly so it is possible I've missed something else.]
Here's the page linking to all the guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advice-for-decision-making-staff-guide

My view would be unearned income, as it's more compensation than doing a "job".
I believe it would be better for OP if it was unearned income, as I believe (stand to be corrected) that there would be no surplus earnings carry over if paid £4k in one hit.