Low Wage and Self-employed

As AEB is funded at an individual aim level and eligibility is established at the start date of the aim the evidence requirement is required not once a year but as per the following at the aim start date:

You must have seen evidence of the learner’s gross annual wages in these circumstances. This could be a wage slip or a UC statement within 3 months of the learner’s learning start date, or a current employment contract which states gross monthly/annual wages.

HTH

Hi Martin, The reference to once a year was regarding self employed learners and the annual self return they have to submit to HMRC- this is something we have been try in g to accept as evidence of low-wage. I was wondering what other providers accept for self employed learners.

The evidence requirements in the funding rules don’t really apply to a self- employed learner unless the are also in receipt of UC.

You must check the eligibility of a learner, including where in England they are resident, at the start of each learning aim and if applicable, a learner’s self-declaration is sufficient and a return to HNRC is always in retrospect and may not reflect the status at the start date, it is also not a requirement of the funding rules.

For learners in receipt of low wages the following applies:

You must have seen evidence of the learner’s gross annual wages in these circumstances. This could be a wage slip or a UC statement within 3 months of the learner’s learning start date, or a current employment contract which states gross monthly/annual wages. Please note this is not an exhaustive list, but you must evidence your decision to award full funding to an individual who would normally be eligible for co-funding.

HTH

Thanks again Martin.

I'm not sure I understand the first paragraph as self declarations are not used for low-wage. 

The problem we have is we are not sure what would be the appropriate evidence to check and record for a low-wage self-employed learner, I might have to email ESFA.

I've never had one, but I think we'd accept their last evidence of income, so that HMRC return they do sounds like it would be ok. As the rules say, it's not an exhaustive list, you can only do what you can, and make clear notes to justify your decision. Being self-employed should not be an administrative barrier to accessing ESFA funding they are due. I'd be prepared to argue this one with an auditor. If they could come up with a better solution, I'd be all ears. If current employment contract is acceptable (which could be quite old), then surely something from the last year is ok.

Thanks Ruth.

Our reluctance to accept the self returns from HMRC is because they are only issued once a year and are based on financial years. Therefore someone enrolling in Jan-March this year would only be providing a 21/22 return. They could have a high increase to their income in 22/23 and could potentially not be eligible - in the same way why we wouldn't accept a payslip dated 1 year ago.

But pay slips aren't foolproof either. We use the last three, but some people's work fluctuates a lot, and their three before that could have been way higher for all we know, or the following three could be much higher. We're just using what evidence we can to make best judgements. You could add a self-declaration on top of recording what evidence you saw just to make it clear.

Morning,

I know this conversation was over a year ago but just wondered if anybody has been able to collect any alternative evidence for self-employed learners to prove earnings? We have had an increased number of potential learners come through but it's quite difficult to evidence their annual earnings, especially later in the year when the annual P60/tax return is over 3 months old or learners aren't claiming Universal Credit etc.

I asked the ESFA and one of their suggestions was a bank statement which I'm not particularly comfortable asking people to show and also it doesn't really prove anything in relation to earnings. I asked about self-declaration if the learner didn't have anything else they could use to prove earnings but they said "Another form of evidence as well as the self-declaration form is therefore required, we aren’t prescriptive of what that needs to be.".

Just feels like we're having situations where we aren't able to enrol people because of this so I'm hoping others have some experience and can offer some advice...

Thanks

Steve

We also have the same issue with their latest HMRC return.

My colleague has suggested asking the learner to providence evidence of their income like receipts etc. Not sure how practical that is though.

I'd be surprised if we were allowed to accept a self dec considering this falls into the earning thresshold where we are required to evidence that we have seen actual proof.

Its a tricky one.