The Government has no plans to extend adoption pay to self-employed people who have a child via surrogacy.

There are no plans to extend Statutory Maternity Pay to self-employed people. Statutory Maternity Pay forms part of a package of employment rights and protections available specifically to the employed. These rights do not extend to the self-employed because of the difference in the nature of the employment.

Women who are self-employed and expecting, can apply for Maternity Allowance to support them to take a break from their business prior to, and after, giving birth.

The Lower Earnings Limit per week in the period of 6 July 2022 to 5 April 2023 was £123. Guidance on National Insurance contributions are published here.

You can get Maternity Allowance for 39 weeks if in the 66 weeks before your baby is due, you have been employed or registered as self-employed for at least 26 weeks. Maternity Allowance eligibility is published here.

Maternity Allowance data is published on a quarterly basis and includes data on employment status. The latest release is for June to August 2022. Maternity Allowance statistics for May 2022 was not published as planned due to a data production error. Thereby, data from the last 4 available quarters is reported in Table 1. This is taken from Table 7a of the Maternity Allowance quarterly statistics published here.

Data specific to claimants earning below the Lower Earnings Limit is not available. The data in Table 1 refers to claimants on both the Maternity Allowance Standard Rate or Variable Rate.

Table 1: Number of self-employed, unemployed, and other Maternity Allowance claimants over 4 quarters

Self-employed people on a low income could be eligible for cost of living payments of up to £900 if they are entitled to a means-tested benefit, such as Universal Credit, in the relevant qualifying period. To qualify for the first payment of £301 an individual would need to have been entitled to a payment of either Universal Credit for an assessment period ending between 26 January and 25 February 2023 a payment of another DWP means-tested benefit for any day between 26 January and 25 February 2023; or have received (or later be found to have been entitled to) a payment of tax credits for any day in the same period. As with the first payment, the qualifying dates for the second and third payments of £300 and £299 will be set out in secondary legislation and announced once these regulations have been made.

We have kept the eligibility rules for the cost of living payments as simple as possible in order to deliver them promptly and accurately. Whatever eligibility dates are selected there will be always be some individuals who are ineligible in the qualifying period – whether that is due for example to their earnings, capital or other income, or for a combination of reasons. Our decision to make three separate payments over 2023/24 will however reduce the chance of someone missing out altogether.

To help households with the costs of essentials, including those who may not be eligible for cost of living payments, we are also extending the Household Support Fund in England. The Devolved Administrations will receive Barnett funding to spend at their discretion and with their local knowledge.

Self-employed people on a low income could be eligible for cost of living payments of up to £900 if they are entitled to a means-tested benefit, such as Universal Credit, in the relevant qualifying period. To qualify for the first payment of £301 an individual would need to have been entitled to a payment of either Universal Credit for an assessment period ending between 26 January and 25 February 2023 a payment of another DWP means-tested benefit for any day between 26 January and 25 February 2023; or have received (or later be found to have been entitled to) a payment of tax credits for any day in the same period. As with the first payment, the qualifying dates for the second and third payments of £300 and £299 will be set out in secondary legislation and announced once these regulations have been made.

We have kept the eligibility rules for the cost of living payments as simple as possible in order to deliver them promptly and accurately. Whatever eligibility dates are selected there will be always be some individuals who are ineligible in the qualifying period – whether that is due for example to their earnings, capital or other income, or for a combination of reasons. Our decision to make three separate payments over 2023/24 will however reduce the chance of someone missing out altogether.

To help households with the costs of essentials, including those who may not be eligible for cost of living payments, we are also extending the Household Support Fund in England. The Devolved Administrations will receive Barnett funding to spend at their discretion and with their local knowledge.

The Government recognises the importance of self-employment to the economy, and believes it is right that, once people are in work, they should become more financially independent and less reliant on benefits. The Minimum Income Floor encourages self-employed UC claimants to progress in work and increase their earnings through developing their business. It also limits state support for those who persistently declare very low self-employed earnings - a situation which is unsustainable and unfair on the taxpayer, and a poor outcome for claimants.

We have kept the eligibility rules for the Cost of Living Payments as simple as possible to deliver them promptly and accurately.

The cost of living payment for eligible means-tested benefit claimants will however be delivered in three separate payments over 2023/24. This reduces the chance of someone missing out altogether as those who do not qualify for one of the payments due to their changing circumstances, may qualify for another one of the payments.

For those who require additional support the Government is providing £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable a further extension to the Household Support Fund in England. In England, this will run from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, backed by £842m. Local Authorities use the Fund to help households with the cost of essentials, and they are expected to help households in the most need, particularly those who may not be eligible for the other support the government has recently made available. The guidance can be found here: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund guidance for county councils and unitary authorities in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has made improvements to enforcement processes to increase effective use of powers. This includes simplifying deductions from earnings, increasing efficiency by reducing the manual intervention required, making better use of deductions from bank accounts therefore increasing the volume of deductions leading to more money being collected quicker for children and working in partnership with HMCT to reduce Court processing times by introducing Virtual Court presenting and electronic exchange of documentation. There is also a Private Members bill sponsored by the Honourable Member for Stroud that removes the requirement to make court applications for liability orders which enable CMS to progress with enforcement action faster and improve efficiency, whilst protecting appeal rights.

The CMS FIU considers all allegations relating to income, either that received from HMRC or from declarations from paying parents, where the information and intelligence indicates that the income used in a CMS assessment has been underdeclared, the FIU carry out a full and thorough investigation and where additional income is found cases are re-assessed and any fraudulent activity considered for referral to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The requested information is not held.

Further to our answer to Question 138302, these Regulations have been introduced as part of the Way to Work campaign, and reflect the evidence that the longer a person is out of work, the harder it is for them to secure a job. Way to Work also means that we are giving new claimants more time with their Work Coach and bringing employers into our jobcentres in order to quickly move claimants into work. Gainfully self-employed claimants are exempt from work search and availability requirements to allow them to focus on their business.

We do not hold data that allows us to identify those with marginal employment or within specific sectors that have been granted a permitted period. As is routine, we will be assessing the impact of the changes on Universal Credit claimants more generally.

We are enhancing our programme of support for workers on Universal Credit starting from April 2022. More people who are in work and on low incomes will be able to access Work Coach support to help them to increase their earnings and move into better paid quality jobs. Work coach support will focus on removing barriers to progression and offering career progression advice, such as considering skills gaps, identifying training opportunities, or looking for progression opportunities for the claimant in their current role or supporting them into a new role. Jobcentres will be supported in this new role by a network of 37 Progression Champions across Great Britain who will spearhead the scheme. Progression Champions will work with key partners, including local government, employers, and skills providers to identify and develop local progression opportunities. They will also work with partners to address local barriers that limit progression such as childcare and transport.

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.

The Answer of 1 February 2022 to Question 113112 included an estimate for the net change in self-employment since the start of Covid-19 (based on responses to the Labour Force Survey). This estimate does not necessarily represent people no-longer in paid work, as some may have become employees. The estimate cannot be broken-down geographically due to the sample size of the Labour Force Survey.

The Minimum Income Floor aims to encourage individuals to increase their earnings through developing their self-employment. It also helps deter under declaration of earnings and as such provides fairness to the taxpayer.

In Universal Credit no sector is treated more, or less favourably than another and all claimants have the same rights and obligations. We are aware that for many who are self-employed, particularly those with seasonal businesses, earnings often fluctuate from month to month, and they need to budget and plan for this. Self-employed Universal Credit claimants are no different in this regard. UC seeks to assist viable self-employment, and support people in self-employment, where this is the best route for them to become financially self-sufficient.

Due to the significant increase of self-employed people claiming Universal Credit during the pandemic, it will take the Department up to 12 months to meet with each of these claimants, consider their circumstances and determine if they are gainfully self-employed.

Universal Credit supports people into self-employment where self-employment is the best route for them to become financially self-sufficient. The Minimum Income Floor encourages individuals to increase their earnings and make a success of their business through developing their self-employment. It also addresses flaws in the previous Tax Credit system which allowed self-employed claimants to receive full State support while continuing to declare very low earnings and to prevent people from under-declaring earnings in the future. This restores fairness for the taxpayer.

Despite the Government’s best efforts, many freelance and self-employed people in my constituency and throughout the country had a very tough time during the covid restrictions. Within the remit of her own departmental responsibilities, but also in her discussions in the Cabinet, what is my right hon. Friend doing to encourage people to take that extra risk in pursuing a future means of access to work by becoming self-employed?

The Department welcomes representations from stakeholders and incorporates these into policy development and implementation where possible. Many policies relating to self-employment, fall within the ambit of other Government Departments and representations may have been made to them on these matters.

After careful consideration of the ongoing public health situation, the temporary suspension of the minimum income floor (MIF) for UC self-employed claimants has been extended to the end of July 2021. Gainful self-employment tests and the MIF, where applicable, will be gradually reintroduced from August, at which time Work Coaches will be given discretion to further suspend the MIF to ensure that those claimants who continue to be severely affected by covid-19 restrictions can be supported on a case-by-case basis.

The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) supports people on eligible benefits who want to move into self-employment.

It is available to:

• people aged 18 and over in receipt of Universal Credit and in eligible regimes;
• over 18s claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA);
• the dependent partners of JSA and ESA claimants; and
• Income Support claimants who are sick or who are lone parents.

The tax credits system is designed to work closely alongside the tax system. This is why the general measure of income for assessing claims to tax credits is any income which is charged to income tax.

The Local Restriction Support Grant is a taxable payment made to businesses. As such, it is considered as income for tax credits purposes. This is consistent with other forms of taxable business support available during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as the Self-Employment Income Support Grant and Small Business Grants.

DWP legislation provides that Covid-19 related grants which are intended to cover loss of business income and to aid business recovery, will be disregarded for Universal Credit purposes for 12 months.