Minimum income floor

Just double checking my thinking.

We have a client who has been self-employed for over 12 months. He works as a driver but has recently had an operation which means sitting for long periods is difficult while he recovers. He can still work but reduced hours. He is being affected by the minimum income floor and I can’t see a way to remove this because he is gainfully self-employed, would be expected to look for work (and couldn’t reasonably get LCW).

Is he just stuck? Am I missing anything? Is it worth submitting an MR on the grounds that he’s working less due to ill health and just see where it goes?

Any thoughts gratefully received.

The MIF should be reduced to the equivalent Minimum Wage rate x hours he is expected to work in his Claimant Commitment. There is a thread on here somewhere where DWP confirms this.

So the answer is to reduce the conditionality of the CC down to what is reasonable for him to work currently (i.e. what he is actually working) and that should take the MIF out of the equation. 

edit
Or alternatively, maybe the DWP can look again at whether he remains Gainfully Self-Employed. If not there is no MIF. There’s a thread about that somewhere too.

Lovely, thanks for the pointers. I’ll have a further dig and see what we can swing.

Rebecca

If you want the regulations reg 62 of the UC Regs 2013 says the MIF is the claimant’s individual threshold multiplied by 52 and divided by 12, reg 90(2) says the individual threshold is exected hours x minimum wage, and reg 88(c) says expected hours can be reduced on basis of health problems.