Self employed income, jobseekers allowance

My friend has been on JA for over a year. She's now been offered 4 hours work per week for up to 12 weeks. She has been told that her employer will not be operating PAYE and she must consider herself self employed for tax purposes. While it is clearly the employers responsibility to operate PAYE in line with Revenue guidelines for employed vs self employed, my friend does not want to fight this battle as they will probably withdraw the offer if she does.
She is now trying to figure out how the 4 hours will affect her jobseekers allowance. While its self employed income its only for a few weeks and she wont get any more work like this afterwards.

A number of points here;

1. While your firend may not want to 'fight this battle', it is not her choice. The employer cannot decide that she is not an employee. She is an employee, full stop. If she agrees to the illegal arrangement, she is colluding with the employer and leaving herself open to possible court 'battles' down the road if she is caught/reported.
2. What happens if she has an accident at work? she will not be covered by insurance.
3. You say she is on JA for a year. If she had previously PRSI and was on JB which exhausted, the 12 weeks work as employee would probably requalify her for JB, which is not means-tested. She would also be adding contributions to her pension entitlement, other SW entitlements down the line.
4. What is going to tell SW? They will want to know details of work, employer, etc.

My advice is to tell SW that she is employed and give all correct details. She does not have to 'fight the battle' with employer. If he does not legally comply with the law, then he can be reported to SW and/or Revenue after she leaves!

Welfarite, I do not dispute that the employer has no right to decide that my friend is not an employee. However the reality is that the employer is offering the work on these terms only. They can easily find someone else and are likely to do so if a fuss is made.
The "employer" funnily enough is a state body! More reason for them to comply with state law one might have thought! The work involves 4 hours, at a fixed hourly rate, in a fixed place of employment, with no rights to delegate responsibility to another. No question that it is an employment. However, at the end of each month, my friend will have to invoice for hours worked in order to be paid.

Taking your points into consideration, it appears that the only choice for my friend is to refuse the work on the grounds that they refuse to uphold the law.

Appreciate you weren't disputing the 'lawful' aspect, Caroline82 ...just reiterating the point! If the employer is a state body, all the more reason to report them; they are doubly defrauding the taxpayer!

how is this defrauding,
this is how self employed people work

person does work
person invoices party
person gets paid
person does tax return
happy days

less paperwork for employer person

rameire said:

how is this defrauding,
this is how self employed people work

person does work
person invoices party
person gets paid
person does tax return
happy days

less paperwork for employer person

Click to expand...

The person is not self-employed in this instance. This explains all.