Help explain Universal Credit and cleaning job for my Ukrainian guest

[UltimateFoole]

I need help and advice around how working will impact Universal Credit for our Ukrainian guest (she is here under 'Homes for Ukraine' programme)

She has been offered some work cleaning a house locally. It will be something like 4 hours every other week or 3 hours a week - not yet decided. The pay will be between £13 and £15 per hour.

She submitted a claim for Universal Credit a few weeks ago and is waiting to hear the result.

Am I right in thinking that she can still get Universal Credit - but adjusted for her earnings?

Also - what do we need to know with regards taking work cleaning someone's house? What about insurance, declaring income for tax, holiday pay... anything else?

I really want to get this right for her. Any advice welcome. Thank you.

Are they entitled to universal credit? Sorry I'm not up to date with all the facts.

She surely isn't entitled to benefits?

Oh my mistake, Ukrainian refugees are allowed to claim.

Ukrainians who are sponsored under the Homes for Ukraine scheme are immediately entitled to receive the same benefits as UK citizens. With the possible exception of housing costs - but I'm not 100 % sure about that part.

She may need to declare that she's self employed and then declare any income. Her UC will be adjusted accordingly. If she says she's self employed she's unlikely to be seen as Gainfully Self Employed so no minimum floor income should be set for her (she won't be expected to earn over a set amount).

Thank you for the advice.

Benefits office have confirmed the self-employed route is do-able - although it can be tricky to manage as declaring earnings does not always tally with the Universal Credit assessment period. In short - try to declare your self-employed earnings on the final day of your assesment period to make the UC calculation as accurate as possible.

Thought this info might help someone else.

There is a work allowance for UC which is determined by your housing element. No housing element means an allowance of £557. So they can earn £557 before any deductions are made from UC. Earnings get declared monthly to UC via their online account.

In terms of tax/NI I believe it's if over £1000 in a year then they need to be registered to self employed.

Also UC will state what the assessment period is & so earnings within that period are declared 🙂

'There is a work allowance for UC which is determined by your housing element. No housing element means an allowance of £557. So they can earn £557 before any deductions are made from UC. Earnings get declared monthly to UC via their online account'.

She will only get a work allowance if she is getting UC for a child/children or has LCW. If she is single then it will be 55% of all self employed income taken into account.

Apologies, forgot about work allowance only applying to certain groups - thanks carben 🙂

Hi @UltimateFoole
Did you get any further with this? I am helping a Ukrainian friend and she was looking at getting work through a cleaning agency or similar but she could also just get cleaning jobs locally, making her however self employed.

I am trying to understand if that's doable while claiming benefits (she has kids so would be part-time and a relatively small income) or if self-employed is a step too far in terms of system complexity!

Thank you