"Wholly, exclusively and necessarily" means exactly the same thing in social security law as it does in tax law. In tax law, if an employer provides a non-cash perk, or reimburses you for expenses and it is tax free, then it isn't income for benefit purposes. Equally, if you have to spend money to do your job which is not reimbursed by your employer, then you can deduct it when you do your tax return. Two good examples are the cost of travelling AT (never TO) work - say from your main place of work to a different one - and the cost of professional subscriptions which are a necessary part of your job (like a practising certificate for a solicitor or doctor, or the cost of keeping your name on the roll of solicitors for a non-practising solicitor who works as a judge).
If you are buying things you would need anyway even if you weren't working, like clothes and lunches, they don't count. They also don't count if you could do the job without them. I don't suppose your client wears anything greatly different for her work from the sort of thing she would wear anyway, except perhaps aprons for art classes, and lots of people who don't work buy aprons.
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