CORONAVIRUS: Many self-employed workers will receive a lump sum from the government under their Self-Employed Income Support Scheme. These need to be reported to the DWP as income in the Assessment Period received. See our Coronavirus pages for more information – click here.

Self-employed?

If you’re self-employed, you’ll have to report your earnings each month before you can get your payment.

You will have a ‘to do’ task to report your self employed income and expenses on the last day of each Assessment Period.

You will need to report all the income your business has received during the Assessment Period – these are called ‘receipts’ less certain costs that you’ve paid – these are called ‘personal allowances and permitted expenses’. This will give you your final earnings amount.

Report your earnings through your online journal. Even if you haven’t made any money, or you’ve made a loss still report this. You can carry over a loss to the following month. A loss will be deducted from your next month’s earnings.

If you need help or support reporting your earnings, call the Universal Credit helpline.

Example
Stewart claims Universal Credit on the 16th July. His Assessment Periods start on the 16th day of each month, and end on 15th day of the following month. He must report his earnings on 15th of each month.

Minimum Income Floor

Some self-employment claimants are affected by the Minimum Income Floor.

The Minimum Income Floor doesn’t apply to everyone. If it doesn’t apply to you, your payments will be based on what you actually earn through self-employment.

If it does apply to you then, when the DWP work out your Universal Credit payment each month, they’ll use either your real earnings or your ‘Minimum Income Floor’ (how much they expect you to earn), whichever is higher. 

For more information see the guide on the gov.uk website – click here.

CORONAVIRUS: The Minimum Income Floor (MIF) was suspended for everyone during the Coronavirus outbreak, but it is being reintroduced. If your business is still affected by the coronavirus pandemic, let your Work Coach know.

If your UC payment stops because your earnings increase

As your income increases, your payment will reduce until you’re earning enough to no longer be awarded Universal Credit. Your payment will then be stopped. You’ll be told when this happens.

If your earnings decrease after this, or you have another change that means you need financial support and you want to restart your Universal Credit payment, you’ll can either:

• Reclaim UC (if your award stopped less than 6 months ago) – you do this by signing in to your online account
• Make a new Universal Credit claim (if your award stopped more that 6 months ago).

IMPORTANT: If your Universal Credit stops and you think you will become entitled again you must either make a reclaim (if it stopped less that 6 months ago) or a new claim.