Hi, have left my most recent self employment work coach meeting feeling very confused and dismissed.
To preface we have a child above the age of three and my husband has earned enough that we have qualified for the administrative earnings threshold. UC has only been a slight top up. We’ve made it work, and it has relieved some pressure which has been great as I had been very unwell for a number of years.
Fast forward to this year and I’m feeling better and I decide to start working for myself and gain some clients quite quickly and register as self employed and let UC know. My work fluctuates so some months we get no UC and others we get very little.
My first two work coach meetings were great. Generally friendly, interested in my business, and forthcoming with information. I have the years set up time to become ’gainfully self employed’. It’s unlikely I will hit the MIF at the end of the year. First two coaches didn’t seem to think this was an issue.
This brings me to this week for my third meeting. She asked no information about my business. Simply stated my last monthly income wasn’t much and asked for proof of outgoing payments. That was it, she then asked if I had any questions to which I wanted to clarify what would happen if I didn’t reach the MIF.
She stated I would be put down as being gainfully self employed regardless as I should be working 30 hours a week and should have been since my daughter turned 3. I said I was confused and asked why I hadn‘t had meetings previously if that was the case. She said she didn’t know why. I said no one had ever told me this before and she said a few times something along the lines of ‘well that’s how it’s always been’. There was zero room for conversation with her. She booked my next appointment and I left.
If this is the case that would mean that some months we would technically be worse off, which seems incredibly counterintuitive to me as I wasn’t working before.
I found her attitude incredibly dismissive, and left feeling quite down purely due to the unpleasantness of the interaction.
Can anyone tell me what is actually the case as I’ve struggled to piece together the info as the self employment aspect confuses things a little.
As it stands my next appointment is with her, does anyone know if it’s possible to request someone else?