Access to Work Programme

(asked on 25th November 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether an Access to Work claimant has to be paying class 2 national insurance contributions in order to qualify for the scheme as a self-employed person.


Answered by
Mark Harper Portrait
Mark Harper
Secretary of State for Transport
This question was answered on 28th November 2014

In order to be eligible for funding through the Access to Work programme customers must satisfy certain eligibility criteria. One of these criteria is that they are employed or self employed. For Access to Work purposes, self-employment is defined as:

• operating a business either alone or in partnership, or working for an employer on a self-employed contractual basis;

• operating a franchised business on a self-employed basis;

• paying Class II or class IV National Insurance contributions.

• If the applicant is over retirement age (and therefore no longer liable to pay National Insurance) AtW staff will seek to determine that the person is self-employed by requesting a business plan approved by a bank or other financial authority.

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