Told you are self-employed but treated like staff? Check your status
Invoices do not cancel your rights. Check who controls the work, save the evidence and find out what the firm owes you.
You drive their van, work their hours and deliver to their customers. On Friday you send an invoice, because the contract calls you self-employed. If the firm gets the control of an employer while you get none of the paid holiday, that label deserves a challenge. Start with how the job actually works. The paperwork does not have the last word.
- £12.71
- hourly minimum, age 21+, from 1 April 2026
- 5.6 wks
- statutory paid holiday for workers each year
- £123.25
- weekly SSP ceiling from 6 April 2026, if eligible
What to do this week
A manager’s promise to “look into it” does not stop a claim deadline. Get the evidence somewhere you control.
- Write down how the job runs. Record your hours, who sets the rate and rota, whose van or equipment you use, and whether you can refuse jobs or send someone else. Keep dates and the firm’s exact answers. A cleaner’s WhatsApp rota or a driver’s app instructions can show control.
- Save your own work records. Keep the contract, invoices, payment records and messages about your shifts. Store lawful copies outside the work phone or app. Do not copy customers’ confidential information or other people’s personal records.
- Get advice before confronting the firm. Contact your union, Acas in Great Britain or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland. If your visa or rent depends on this job, discuss the risk of lost work and how to protect your evidence first.
- Ask for a written answer. Adapt the message below to the facts of your job. Seven days is a reply date you choose, not a legal waiting period. You do not have to wait for an answer before protecting a claim deadline.
- Use the right enforcement route. Report minimum wage underpayment through the pay and work rights complaint service. For a potential tribunal claim, usually you must notify Acas for early conciliation in time. A helpline call is not that notification. In Northern Ireland, use the Labour Relations Agency.
Couriers and delivery riders can contact the IWGB. Drivers, warehouse and hospitality staff can try Unite or GMB. Care staff can try UNISON or GMB. Ask whether legal help covers a dispute that started before you joined. You can join a union as a gig worker even where the firm disputes your status. Free advice routes include Acas, Citizens Advice and law centres.
You can challenge underpayment after leaving. Do not resign just to strengthen a claim. Constructive dismissal is a separate, risky route. Get independent advice before signing a settlement agreement that waives claims or “confirms” self-employed status.
The contract is their document
False self-employment means the contract calls you a business when the real arrangement gives you worker or employee rights. Sending invoices, registering for self-assessment or agreeing to the label does not settle it. Section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 defines employee and worker status in Great Britain. A contract can be spoken or implied by what you do.
In Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher, [2011] UKSC 41, car valeters had self-employed contracts. The Supreme Court looked at the true agreement, including the reality of the work, rather than accepting the written terms as conclusive. The valeters were workers.
In Pimlico Plumbers Ltd v Smith, [2018] UKSC 29, decided on 13 June 2018, a plumber labelled self-employed drove a branded van and wore the uniform. His terms required at least 40 hours a week. His right to send someone else was limited to another Pimlico operative. That limited substitution right did not defeat personal service. He was a worker, and Pimlico was not the customer of a business he ran independently.
An invoice is a way to get paid. It is not a test of your rights.
In Uber BV v Aslam, [2021] UKSC 5, decided on 19 February 2021, the Supreme Court unanimously found the drivers were workers. Uber set fares and contract terms, constrained acceptance of trips, controlled the service and restricted driver-passenger contact. Working time included periods when the drivers were logged into the app, in their licensed territory and ready and willing to accept trips. It was not limited to carrying passengers.
There is a different result in Independent Workers Union of Great Britain v Central Arbitration Committee, [2023] UKSC 43, decided on 21 November 2023. The Deliveroo riders in that case had a genuine right to use substitutes and were not workers for statutory collective-bargaining recognition. It was not a ruling about every rider’s entitlement to every employment right. A genuine substitution right matters even if you rarely use it. An unused clause is not automatically a sham, and a limited approval requirement does not automatically settle status either.
The cases ask whose business you are working in. Our employee, worker and self-employed guide explains the categories more broadly. Here, the task is to compare the firm’s label with your job.
The tests, in plain words
There is no points system. Read these signs together, using the government’s employment-status guidance. A tribunal decides disputed rights by applying the relevant legal test to the facts.
Control. Who chooses the hours, jobs, route, method, uniform and rate? A warehouse picker who must attend the supervisor’s shifts and follow their instructions has evidence of control. Having some freedom during the shift does not necessarily make the picker a business.
Personal service. Must you do the work yourself? If you cannot attend, can you genuinely arrange and pay a substitute, or does the firm simply cover your shift with its own staff? Those are different arrangements. The worker test requires personal work or services. Ask what the substitution clause permits and what would happen if you used it.
Mutuality of obligation. What must each side provide and accept? For employee status, courts examine the obligations to provide work or pay and to perform the work, alongside personal service, control and the rest of the arrangement. A lack of guaranteed future shifts does not rule out worker status during the work you do. Zero-hours and casual contracts are not synonyms for self-employment.
Integration and a business of your own. Their van, customers and staff rota can suggest you work in their business. Setting your prices, finding customers, bearing genuine business risk and organising the work yourself point the other way. One client alone proves little. A cleaner can have one large customer and still run an independent business. One client who dictates the cleaner’s shifts and rate is a different picture. A ban on working elsewhere is another fact to record, alongside any exclusivity clause.
Employee, worker, or a real business
Employees are workers too. The useful distinction is between an employee, a worker who is not an employee, and someone genuinely running their own business. Winning worker status gives you enforceable pay and holiday rights. It does not automatically give you employee-only protections.
| Right | Worker, not employee | Employee | Genuinely self-employed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum wage and paid holiday | Yes, subject to the relevant rules | Yes, subject to the relevant rules | No statutory entitlement |
| Statutory Sick Pay | Only if separately eligible, including employed tax status | Subject to SSP eligibility | No |
| Pension auto-enrolment | Subject to age, earnings and other eligibility rules | Same | No employer auto-enrolment duty |
| Unlawful deductions and working-time protection | Yes | Yes | Not on the same basis |
| Discrimination and whistleblowing protection | Generally covered, but each law has its own scope | Covered, subject to the relevant legal test | Some discrimination protection can still apply |
| Ordinary unfair dismissal, statutory redundancy pay and statutory notice | No | Yes, with qualifying conditions | No |
| Statutory family leave and flexible-working request | Generally employee-only rights | Yes, with the relevant conditions | No |
A worker personally provides work for a party who is not their client or customer. An employee works under a contract of employment. A genuinely self-employed person runs a business for clients or customers. They do not get the statutory wage floor or paid holiday, but they can still have contractual rights, and some other protections use wider tests.
Employee status adds rights including ordinary unfair dismissal, statutory redundancy pay, statutory notice, family leave and a flexible-working request. In Great Britain, workers as well as employees are entitled to the principal written statement of terms on day one. Do not confuse a lack of statutory notice rights with freedom to ignore an agreed contractual notice period.
What the label is costing you
From 1 April 2026 the hourly minimum wage rates are £12.71 for ages 21 and over, £10.85 for ages 18 to 20, and £8.00 for under-18s above school-leaving age and eligible apprentices. The apprentice rate applies if you are under 19, or 19 and over in the first year of the apprenticeship. Being called a trainee is not enough. The rates guide explains the bands.
Workers get 5.6 weeks’ statutory paid holiday a year. That is 28 days on a five-day week. Part-time workers get a proportionate entitlement. In Great Britain, specific rules for irregular-hours and part-year workers apply to leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. Those rules allow holiday accrual at 12.07% of hours worked and rolled-up holiday pay, paid on top of normal pay and identified separately. Workers must still be allowed to take leave. Use our holiday calculator and holiday-pay guide.
Statutory Sick Pay needs a separate eligibility check. Worker status alone does not qualify you. You must be classed as employed for tax purposes, have started work and meet the sickness-notification rules. Someone genuinely self-employed for tax can be a worker for holiday pay without qualifying for SSP. If the tax classification is wrong too, get advice rather than accepting the invoices as the answer.
From 6 April 2026, eligible people get SSP from the first full qualifying day of sickness absence, with no lower earnings limit. It is £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks. The reforms also apply in Northern Ireland under section 12 and section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 2025. A part-week payment depends on qualifying days. For eligibility or payment disputes, the Acas guidance links to HMRC’s statutory payment dispute team. Our SSP guide explains the calculation.
Pension auto-enrolment generally covers workers who ordinarily work in the UK, are aged 22 to state pension age and earn over £10,000 a year. For 2026/27, minimum contributions total 8% of qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270, including at least 3% from the employer. Other workers may have rights to opt in or join. Ask the firm to assess its duties, rather than assuming “self-employed” settles them. See workplace pensions.
The savings help explain the incentive to misclassify. A firm that denies paid leave or pension contributions keeps money that should support your time off and retirement. Employer National Insurance is another possible saving, but it follows tax status, not every worker-status finding. The standard 2026/27 rate is 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold, subject to reliefs and special categories. Do not treat a worker-status claim as an automatic employer tax bill.
Example: Marc’s van round
Marc is 28. He delivers for one firm, in its van and uniform, and invoices £460 for 45 hours a week. This is an illustration, not a decided case. Assume all 45 hours count for minimum wage and £460 is his pay before tax, with no work expenses to adjust.
If Marc is a worker, the minimum for those hours is 45 × £12.71 = £571.95. The shortfall is £571.95 − £460 = £111.95 a week. Four identical weeks leave £447.80 unpaid. Calling it an invoice does not make that underpayment lawful.
Paid holiday is a separate entitlement. At a normal week’s pay of £571.95, 5.6 weeks has a value of £3,202.92 for a full leave year. That is the value of paid time off, not automatically an extra cash payment on top of a year’s wages. The amount recoverable depends on leave taken, leave denied, pay and whether the job has ended.
Example: Priya’s care invoices and sick pay
Priya sends care invoices and has average weekly earnings of £150. First check her status. If she qualifies for SSP, including being classed as employed for tax, the weekly calculation is 80% × £150 = £120. That is lower than £123.25, so £120 is the applicable weekly rate. If she is genuinely self-employed for tax, winning worker status for holiday does not by itself produce that sick pay.
For a regular-hours worker with normal weekly holiday pay of £150, 5.6 weeks’ paid leave is worth £840 over a full leave year. A minimum-wage correction could change the pay calculation. Keep visit times, travel records and payments. Our care-worker pay guide explains which hours to check.
Example: rolled-up holiday on a kitchen rota
An irregular-hours kitchen worker in Great Britain earns £13 an hour. Their leave year started on or after 1 April 2024, and the employer uses lawful rolled-up holiday pay. For 20 hours, normal pay is 20 × £13 = £260. Holiday pay on top is £260 × 12.07% = £31.38, rounded to the penny. Total pay is £291.38, with the holiday amount shown separately. Do not multiply a rounded hourly holiday amount by the hours. If the worker instead gets paid holiday when taking leave, the absence of a rolled-up supplement is not itself underpayment.
A tax tool will not tell you your rights
HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax tool, CEST, is a view on tax and National Insurance only. HMRC’s manual says so. CEST has no worker answer. It says employed, self-employed, or that it cannot determine. Tribunals are not bound by the printout.
Self-assessment does not cancel holiday pay
Tax status and employment rights are separate systems. A tax return does not prevent you from being a worker for minimum wage and holiday purposes. If employment for tax is also disputed, get advice about PAYE, National Insurance and previous returns. Do not amend a return just because the firm changes the wording of your contract.
How to get the money back
You do not have to stay on the rota to pursue money you are owed. The route depends on the right you are claiming, and the firm may dispute status as part of that claim. A worker-status finding is not a guarantee that the money will arrive promptly.
For minimum wage underpayment, use the pay and work rights complaint service. The Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April 2026. Its delivery plan says HMRC delivers minimum wage enforcement under contract until the full transfer in April 2027. State enforcement of holiday pay is expected to begin in 2027. It is not an available holiday-pay recovery route as at 1 October 2026. Do not wait for it.
In Great Britain, unpaid holiday pay can often be claimed as an unlawful deduction from wages. The two-year backstop on that deductions route is not the answer to every holiday claim. Where the firm has denied paid-leave rights altogether, ask an adviser about accumulated leave and payment when the job ends. Acas explains that an employer’s failure to allow or encourage holiday can trigger carryover. For regular-hours workers, this can cover up to four weeks’ entitlement from a leave year. The treatment of the remaining leave and irregular-hours workers differs.
A contractual court claim may be another route, but it needs a proper legal basis and has different limitation and costs rules. Do not assume all statutory holiday becomes a six-year debt claim. Equally, do not assume the tribunal deductions backstop limits a minimum wage enforcement complaint. Give the adviser the dates, leave records and details of any other claim or complaint.
For most relevant Great Britain claims about problems on or after 1 October 2026, the ordinary deadline is six months minus one day. For most problems before that date, it remains three months minus one day. Acas gives the example of underpayment on 1 October 2026. Before any early-conciliation adjustment, the deadline is 31 March 2027. Underpayment on 30 September 2026 instead gives 29 December 2026. Notify Acas within the applicable limit. Timely early conciliation pauses the clock; a grievance or enforcement complaint does not. A series of missed payments needs its own calculation. Use our time-limits guide and deadline calculator, then get the exact date checked.
Agency, umbrella, one client
If an agency supplies you to a workplace, record the whole chain. The agency or umbrella that engages and pays you is usually responsible for pay, but the contracts and actual arrangement matter. Eligible agency workers have minimum wage and paid-holiday rights from the start. The Agency Workers Regulations add equal treatment on basic pay and working conditions after 12 qualifying weeks in the same role with the same hirer. Those are separate protections. See agency workers’ rights.
In a standard umbrella arrangement, the umbrella employs you and pays your wages. A demand to invoice as self-employed does not fit that arrangement and needs checking. Further umbrella-company regulation is scheduled for 2027, not a new right you can use now. Existing wage and holiday rights still apply. See umbrella-company contracts.
Ask each organisation to identify who engages you, who pays you and who sets the terms. Keep the answers alongside payslips and invoices. Do not let a disagreement between the agency and client become your reason to miss a deadline.
Scotland and Northern Ireland
Scotland uses the same core employee and worker definitions as England and Wales. The separate Scottish employment tribunals handle Scottish claims. One deadline change is later. For Scottish tribunal breach-of-contract claims, the ordinary limit remains three months minus one day where employment ends (or work was last done) before 9 November 2026. Where it ends on or after that date, it becomes six months minus one day. That later change is scheduled, not in force as at 1 October.
Northern Ireland has its own employment legislation, including the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996. Use the Labour Relations Agency for advice and early conciliation. Claims go to the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal, with their own limits. Do not import the new Great Britain tribunal deadline. Minimum wage is UK-wide. The SSP reforms also extend to Northern Ireland, although many other Employment Rights Act 2025 provisions do not. Start with nidirect’s status guidance and our Northern Ireland guide.
What has changed, and what has not
The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. Passing the Act did not bring every provision into force. The government timetable, updated on 25 September 2026, distinguishes measures already introduced from planned changes. Future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes. Our reform guide follows the wider programme.
- In force. SSP reforms
Waiting days and the lower earnings limit removed, including in Northern Ireland. Eligibility still matters. Worker status for holiday alone is not enough.
- In force. Fair Work Agency established
HMRC continues delivering minimum wage enforcement under contract. Holiday-pay enforcement is planned for 2027, not available from the agency’s launch.
- In force. Longer Great Britain tribunal limits
Six months minus one day for most problems on or after this date. Scottish tribunal breach-of-contract claims change later, on 9 November 2026.
- Scheduled. Ordinary unfair dismissal changes
The qualifying period is scheduled to fall from two years to six months for dismissals from this date, with the compensatory cap removed. These remain employee rights, not rights for every worker. As at 1 October 2026, the usual two-year qualification still applies.
Questions people ask
Do fixed hours prove the self-employed label is wrong?
They are evidence of control, but not proof on their own. Record who sets the rota, whether you must attend, what happens if you refuse and whether you must do the work personally. The whole relationship matters.
Does a company van, uniform and one client make you a worker?
Those facts can support a worker-status claim. Pimlico Plumbers shows that branded equipment and a self-employed contract can coexist with worker rights. But you still need to examine personal service and whether the firm is genuinely a customer of your own business.
Does a substitution clause rule out worker status?
No. Ask whether it is genuine and how wide it is. A limited right to use another company operative did not defeat personal service in Pimlico. A genuine unrestricted right mattered in the Deliveroo collective-bargaining case. Never having used a clause does not, by itself, make it false.
Does CEST or self-assessment settle your employment rights?
No. CEST concerns tax and National Insurance, not worker status for minimum wage and holiday. But tax status matters for SSP, so do not assume every worker is entitled to sick pay. Take advice before changing previous tax returns.
How far back can you claim unpaid holiday?
A Great Britain tribunal claim for deductions generally has a two-year backstop. Denial of paid-leave rights can raise different carryover and termination-payment questions. Keep records for the whole period and get the route checked. A court claim is not automatically available for every statutory holiday debt.
Can you challenge the label without losing the job?
No adviser can guarantee the firm’s response. Save your evidence before raising it, and ask your union or adviser about protection against retaliation and what to do if shifts disappear. In Great Britain, most relevant problems on or after 1 October 2026 have a six-month-minus-one-day deadline, before early-conciliation adjustment. Do not wait for a grievance answer. Northern Ireland has separate procedures and limits.
Sources
- Employment Rights Act 1996, section 230, legislation.gov.uk.
- Employment status and employment rights, GOV.UK.
- Worker status, GOV.UK.
- Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher, [2011] UKSC 41, National Archives.
- Pimlico Plumbers Ltd v Smith, [2018] UKSC 29, National Archives, 13 June 2018.
- Uber BV v Aslam, [2021] UKSC 5, Supreme Court, 19 February 2021.
- IWGB v Central Arbitration Committee, [2023] UKSC 43, Supreme Court, 21 November 2023.
- National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, GOV.UK.
- Holiday entitlement, GOV.UK.
- Carrying over holiday, Acas.
- Statutory Sick Pay eligibility, GOV.UK.
- Statutory Sick Pay eligibility, rates and disputes, Acas.
- Northern Ireland SSP waiting-period reform, section 12 and earnings reform, section 13, Employment Rights Act 2025, legislation.gov.uk. Both commenced on 6 April 2026.
- Written statements of employment particulars, GOV.UK.
- Automatic enrolment earnings thresholds, The Pensions Regulator.
- Employer rates and thresholds, 2026/27, GOV.UK.
- Check Employment Status for Tax, GOV.UK, and ESM11010, HMRC Employment Status Manual.
- Employment Rights Act 1996, Part II, deductions from wages, legislation.gov.uk.
- Pay and work rights complaints, GOV.UK.
- Fair Work Agency delivery plan, 2026/27, GOV.UK, 21 August 2026. Sets out HMRC’s transitional role and holiday-pay enforcement planned for 2027.
- Early conciliation and employment tribunal time limits, Acas.
- Employment Rights Act implementation timetable, GOV.UK, updated 25 September 2026.
- Tribunal statistics, April to June 2026, Ministry of Justice. Source for 70,000 outstanding single claims.
- National Minimum Wage enforcement and compliance, 2024/25, GOV.UK, November 2025. Source for £5.8 million arrears and 25,200 workers.
- Employment status in Northern Ireland, nidirect, and Labour Relations Agency.
- Single status of worker debate, Hansard, 15 April 2026.