cash in hand workers

I’ve got a worker who worked in a chippy cash in hand until it closed. He is reluctant to claim UC as he feels it might open a can of worms about his previous employment.  There must be many people in this situation - it is so rife in the catering industry.  Granted that it was his employer’s responsibility, not his, to pay him properly, but I assume he has a relationship with his employer he doesn’t want to jeopardise as well.  What do people think would be the implications of his claiming UC?

As his workplace has closed (and that seems a fact that neither he nor employer would deny) I wouldn’t be worried about any sanction for leaving work/losing pay - the story about how the work finished is going to be the same from both sources.

I suppose the bit that might be a worry is where UC ask about past earnings in order to identify those exempt from the benefit cap. Your client did have earnings but would saying so lead to any consequences for the employer… I think it’s difficult to say for sure but doubt it would be a priority of government to look into it at the moment. That’s not to say it couldn’t happen in the future though

I assume your client didn’t treat these as self-employed earnings & wasn’t registered as self-employed - so just no tax/NI at all?

As far as I can see neither he nor his employer did anything wrong unless his earnings were at the level at which he should have paid tax or NI. If they were higher than that, then maybe his employer did, and maybe he should now have to pay but I’m not sure that he himself actually committed a crime.