Minimum income floor for self employed UC

AOulton
AOulton Community member Posts: 8 Listener
edited November 2017 in Work
Does anyone know if the minimum income floor of 35 hours a week for self employed people applies to disabled people?

As I understand it WTC kicked in at 16 hours for disabled people. I cannot physically work 35 hours a week but may have the ability to increase my 10 hours a week under permitted Work on ESA to 16, triggering a UC claim. If the 35 hours a week minimum income floor still applies to me though I’ll have no choice but to stay ‘out of work’ I think?

Thanks,
Amy

Comments

  • Pippa_Alumni
    Pippa_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 5,765 Championing
    edited November 2017
    Hi @AOulton, I've moved this post into our 'Ask an employment advisor' category so hopefully somebody will get back to you soon.

    In the meantime, we recently had a similar discussion about the minimum income floor and how it relates to universal credit, which you might like to read. 
  • AOulton
    AOulton Community member Posts: 8 Listener
    To add for the advisor then, is there a minimum earning requirement if you’re employed as I mainly work for one person (on a self employed basis because it suits me to have total control over my hours, some weeks it’s none but I generally average the same a month). Will I be constantly told I should be working more hours or is there an understanding that for many disabled people they can only work a limited amount of I managed to switch to employed not self employed?

    When I looked at the turn2us and entitled2 calculators I got entirely different results on how much UC I might get if I switched over. It makes me feel desperately sad that I think I might have to turn down extended hours with an amazing employer who totally works around my fluctuating conditions because I just can’t afford to lose the safety net of being on ESA. There’s also the gamble that I won’t be able to cope with it and will then be stuck on UC at a much lower rate than my ESA. 

    Ideally I would like to start inching up my hours from 10 (at £12p/h so I’m at the top of permitted work) up to about 16 but it seems like I’m just going to be so much worse off doing that? 

    Thanks
  • Sam_Alumni
    Sam_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,605 Championing
    Hi @BenefitsTrainingCo can you offer any support please?
  • Pia_Scope
    Pia_Scope Scope Posts: 41 Empowering
    @AOulton
    The best advice I can give you is to contact DWP at their customer service number - 0345 608 8545 and hopefully they can give you the correct and full details of what your financial situation would be if you increased your hours to 16 per week on a self employed basis.
    Being a disabled person you would not be expected to work 35 hours a week and     If your business is less than 12 months old, the minimum income floor won’t apply to you for one year.

    I wish you all the best & hope that you will be able to accept the offer of increased hours.

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