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Universal Credit: Self-employed

Question for Department for Work and Pensions

UIN 138303, tabled on 11 March 2022

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the Minimum Income Floor on people's ability to establish self-employment.

Answered on

21 March 2022

No assessment has been made of the impact of the Minimum Income Floor on people’s ability to establish self-employment.

The Minimum Income Floor, an assumed level of income, was created to encourage individuals to increase their earnings through developing their self-employment.

The Minimum Income Floor is designed to address flaws in the previous system which allowed self-employed claimants to receive full State support while persistently declaring very low earnings and to prevent people from under-declaring earnings. This situation is unsustainable and unfair on the taxpayer.