New guidance issued for self-employed claimants

DWP have recently updated their guidance for self-employed claimants here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-self-employment-quick-guide/how-to-report-your-earnings-from-self-employment

There are a couple of errors in the section about what to include as business income:

personal withdrawals, such as money taken from the business in anticipation of future profits

This is simply incorrect.

the sale or transfer of business assets previously declared as self-employment

I suppose this is just badly worded. It should say: “the sale or transfer of business assets, the costs of which were previously deducted as an expense in a prior assessment period”

income from a company that you own or have control over, for example where you are a director

Income FROM a company should never be included when reporting self-employed income (whether it is wages or dividends). Only income OF such a company should be included.
It would anyway be much clearer for this rule to be put separately, and not as a bullet point on this list, as the rest of this list applies to companies as well (and the rest of the list would explain what counts as income of the company).

Daphne, are you able to take this up with DWP?

EDIT: This should really have been in the “Universal Credit Administration” sub-forum, sorry.

The drawings error is an illustration of how so many benefits administrators just don’t “get” what being self-employed means.  I could withdraw some money from my business account, pay it back in immediately, then withdraw it again, rinse and repeat ... I’ll be a millionaire this time next week according to that guidance!

Charles - 25 May 2023 12:12 PM

DWP have recently updated their guidance for self-employed claimants here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-self-employment-quick-guide/how-to-report-your-earnings-from-self-employment

There are a couple of errors in the section about what to include as business income:

personal withdrawals, such as money taken from the business in anticipation of future profits

This is simply incorrect.

the sale or transfer of business assets previously declared as self-employment

I suppose this is just badly worded. It should say: “the sale or transfer of business assets, the costs of which were previously deducted as an expense in a prior assessment period”

income from a company that you own or have control over, for example where you are a director

Income FROM a company should never be included when reporting self-employed income (whether it is wages or dividends). Only income OF such a company should be included.
It would anyway be much clearer for this rule to be put separately, and not as a bullet point on this list, as the rest of this list applies to companies as well (and the rest of the list would explain what counts as income of the company).

Daphne, are you able to take this up with DWP?

EDIT: This should really have been in the “Universal Credit Administration” sub-forum, sorry.

yes of course Charles - I’ll send an email up now :)

PS - I’ve moved it to UC admin too :)

Looks to have been corrected.

Thanks Daphne.

Just come back from holiday to confirm that it has been corrected as you already spotted - and also thanking you for the feedback :)