Permitted work and self-employment.

I have a client who has been volunteering at a kennels and has been offered a few hours a week paid employment working with them. This really is a boost for her as she loves animals and her self-esteem and confidence have really improved since starting. The catch is she has to claim payment as someone who is self-employed. Is it possible to do permitted work as a self-employed worker?

Thanks

From an employment law point of view this sounds pretty dodgy to me - she would lose employment protection rights and would have to register with HMRC as self-employed when she almost certainly isn’t. It might also be an excuse for paying her less than the national minimum wage and denying her holiday pay.

Which benefit is she on is another question: the permitted work disregards are different for ESA and IB on the one hand and IS on the other.

Looking at the regs there doesn’t seem to be any requirment for it to be employed earner’s employment - there is even a special scheme for certain self-employment schemes which conclusively treat the work as permitted work even if the earnings go over the limit.

It’s the other aspects of this proposal that worry me more. What will be the reality of the arrangement? Can she take on work for other people? Must she accept all work offered to her? If she is unable to work on any given day can she send a substitute?

I have to agree with Ariadne, the key to this is not the permitted work but is your client really self-employed or an employee. You need to check her employment status - ACAS website may be able to help.
Chaos

Thanks for your comments on this. I have already made an appointment with her to meet our Work and Learning team who will look through her contract to see if everything is above board.  It’s good to know that is possible to be on ESA and do some self-employed work as Permitted work.

Sometimes employers do not know that where an employee is paid less than the NI threshold (always the case with Permitted Work)
the employer is not required to pay a NI contribution nor is ssp payable nor other standard entitlements such as maternity/paternity pay etc. Holiday pay pro-rata is payable of course. This info might help in negotiation with the kennels. Just a thought.