500 signatures reached
To: Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Protect self-employed creatives: Abolish the minimum income floor in Universal Credit
The minimum income floor (MIF) is pushing creative workers out of the arts, disabled workers away from work, and in-work UC claimants into poverty and ill-health. We urge you to abolish the MIF in UC.
The MIF is a level of income in the UC calculation which is assumed for self-employed people regardless of their actual earnings. In months of low income, it seriously reduces UC payments, including payments for children and rent.
Not only does the MIF push creative workers into in-work poverty, it also stifles growth in one of the UK’s key growth industries. The MIF is incompatible with the fluctuating nature of self-employed creative work. As a result, it is driving highly motivated self-employed creatives away from the industry, pushing them out of highly skilled and rewarding work and into lower-skilled work elsewhere
Universal Credit should support self-employed – yet highly dependent – workers so that they may pursue their careers without being unfairly penalised.
Why is this important?
The creative industries generate £28.3bn in turnover and £13.5bn in Gross Value Added, making up nearly 6% of the UK economy [1]. Their success relies on a diverse workforce, which can only be achieved with a social security system which supports new starters and low earners to build their careers.
The MIF reduces diversity and so directly affects who we see on our stages and screens and whose stories are told. Not Here to Help, a report for Equity by Dr Heidi Ashton, Centre for Culture and Media Policy Studies, The University of Warwick, found that the MIF drives self-employed creatives away from creative work because they cannot afford to stay in it [2], with nearly half of respondents subjected to the MIF saying they had or were considering leaving the industry.
The MIF is a particular barrier to disabled people.In our casework we have seen that those moving to UC from tax credits tend to claim UC for ill-health rather than be subject to the MIF. This is a highly regressive impact of the MIF.
Pushing people away from high quality work is at odds with all sustainable employment evidence and the government’s plan to “Get Britain Working”.
Sign this petition to call on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to abolish the minimum income floor in Universal Credit.
Petition created by David John, Honorary Treasurer and Audio Artists Councillor at Equity.
[1] https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/research-and-data/contribution-art-and-culture-sector-uk-economy.
[2] https://www.equity.org.uk/campaigns-policy/policy-work/universal-credit-report.
The MIF reduces diversity and so directly affects who we see on our stages and screens and whose stories are told. Not Here to Help, a report for Equity by Dr Heidi Ashton, Centre for Culture and Media Policy Studies, The University of Warwick, found that the MIF drives self-employed creatives away from creative work because they cannot afford to stay in it [2], with nearly half of respondents subjected to the MIF saying they had or were considering leaving the industry.
The MIF is a particular barrier to disabled people.In our casework we have seen that those moving to UC from tax credits tend to claim UC for ill-health rather than be subject to the MIF. This is a highly regressive impact of the MIF.
Pushing people away from high quality work is at odds with all sustainable employment evidence and the government’s plan to “Get Britain Working”.
Sign this petition to call on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to abolish the minimum income floor in Universal Credit.
Petition created by David John, Honorary Treasurer and Audio Artists Councillor at Equity.
[1] https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/research-and-data/contribution-art-and-culture-sector-uk-economy.
[2] https://www.equity.org.uk/campaigns-policy/policy-work/universal-credit-report.
How it will be delivered
By hand, to the Secretary of State’s offices at the Department of Work and Pensions, Caxton House, London.