Self-Employed Earners (Info)

The qualifying remunerative work condition applies to self-employed earners in the same way as to employed earners. A self employed earner’s expectation of payment must be a reasonable one. The claimant must confirm that the work is done in expectation of payment. It does not matter that the self employed earner might trade at a loss.

Hours counted for self-employment

The hours that may be counted as being spent in work by a self-employed (S/E) earner include

• Those which will be costed to the client as spent in providing the individual order or service

And

• Those spent in activities necessary to the employment

Examples are

• Trips to wholesalers and retailers

• Visits to potential clients

• Time spent on advertising or canvassing

• Cleaning the business premises

• Cleaning a vehicle used as part of the business, for example a taxi or a driving school car

• Book-keeping

• Research work, for example where the person is an established author

Self-employed seasonal workers

Where the person is a self employed seasonal worker you must establish whether a recognisable cycle of work exists. If the business continues to operate throughout the year it will usually be a year.

You should include in the calculations time spent on all activities connected with the business, for example, taking bookings in winter months, maintenance of property. Then average the hours over the cycle excluding the period when no work is done, for example, holidays.

Self-employed new starter

A self-employed new starter is a person who

• Becomes a self employed earner

Or

• Increased their self employed hours to 16 or more each week

If the person is a S/E new starter, calculate the hours worked based on the average number of hours the person expects to work in a week.

Allowance paid to assist in running a new business

A person may be in receipt of an allowance payable under certain schemes to assist them to become self employed. This allowance used to be called a Business Start Up Scheme. This name no longer applies and schemes are likely to have local names.

An allowance paid to assist a person to become self employed is not payment for work, although such an allowance should still be treated as a gross receipt where it is received.