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 and expenses on 15th of each month otherwise he will not receive any Universal Credit that he is entitled to.
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.
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.
However if your circumstances change within 6 months of your last Universal Credit payment (for example, if your earnings go down or a change in your personal circumstances which means you need more help) payments should re-start automatically – however you should always check that your Universal Credit claim is still live and re-apply if not. Just log into your on-line account and, if asked, confirm that the details you gave before are correct. You will keep your original payment dates.
If this is done more that 6 months after your last Universal Credit payment you will need to make a new claim.
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.