Universal Credit: Self-employed
(asked on 17th May 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of (a) households with a self-employed Universal Credit claimant and (b) people living in households with a self-employed Universal Credit claimant were subject to the Minimum Income Floor in the last five financial years for which data is available.
The table below shows the average monthly number and proportion of (a) households with a self-employed Universal Credit claimant and (b) people living in households with a self-employed Universal Credit claimant subject to the Minimum Income Floor in each financial year from 2018/19 to 2022/23.
| Households with one or more self-employed claimants | Individuals at households with one or more self-employed claimants | ||
| Average monthly number subject to the MIF | Proportion subject to the MIF | Average monthly number subject to the MIF | Proportion subject to the MIF |
2018/19 | 11,300 | 25% | 17,600 | 29% |
2019/20 (Apr-19 to Feb-20) | 29,300 | 26% | 46,600 | 30% |
2020/21 | - | - | - | - |
2021/22 (Aug-21 to Mar-22) | 29,700 | 7% | 47,200 | 8% |
2022/23 (Apr-22 to Feb-23) | 78,500 | 19% | 124,700 | 22% |
Source: Universal Credit Management Information
Notes:
- Numbers of households and individuals are rounded to the nearest 100.
- Numbers of households and individuals are the average for each month during the specified period.
- Claimants are counted as subject to the Minimum Income Floor if they are gainfully self-employed, not in a start-up period, and do not have temporary easement under which the MIF is not applied.
- The Minimum Income Floor was suspended from March 2020 to July 2021. As such, there are no households subject to the MIF in 2020/21, and figures for 2019/20 and 2021/22 exclude months in which the MIF was suspended. The latest month for which figures are available is February 2023.
- Households with a UC award of zero but whose claims have not yet closed are not included.
- From August 2021 onwards there has been a large increase in numbers and proportions subject to the Minimum Income Floor as 12 month start-up periods come to an end for the large volume of claimants assessed in the period following the re-introduction of the MIF in August 2021.