Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

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.

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.