Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Table 5.9 of the Office for Budget Responsibility' report Welfare Trends, published in January 2018, that more than 300,000 self-employed workers will lose an average of over £3,000 a year under universal credit.

The effect set out in Table 5.9 of the Office for Budget Responsibility Report ‘Welfare Trends’, published in January 2018, is due to the Minimum Income Floor, which seeks to incentivise those in gainful self-employment, who earn less than they could expect to earn as an employee at minimum wage, to grow their earnings and become more productive and self-sufficient in the long term. As the OBR say in its report, “the large implied losses per claimant are likely to prompt behavioural responses”, and we expect that some self-employed claimants will respond to this by increasing their monthly earnings from self-employment, some will choose to work as an employee, and others will combine the two. All are potentially good outcomes for them, their families and the taxpayer.