Am I an employee, worker or self-employed?
Freelance workers can have rights to minimum wage and paid holiday. Your rights depend on the job you actually do, not the label on your contract.
Freelance does not automatically mean self-employed. If a care company, cleaning firm or delivery app calls you freelance but controls your work, you may have worker rights, including minimum wage and paid holiday. Being told to send an invoice does not settle it.
- £12.71
- hourly minimum, age 21+, from 1 April 2026
- 5.6 wks
- statutory paid holiday for eligible workers annually
- £123.25
- weekly SSP ceiling from 6 April 2026
- 6 mos
- most tribunal claims for events from 1 October 2026
What is the difference between freelance and self-employed?
People often use the words to mean the same thing. Legally, calling yourself freelance does not prove you are self-employed. A freelancer selling services to clients through an independent business may be genuinely self-employed. Someone doing work personally under another company’s control may instead be a worker or employee.
You can have a different status in each job. Check each working relationship, not your job title or how you describe yourself on an invoice. Paying your own tax does not, by itself, remove employment rights either.
Employee, worker or self-employed: what does each mean?
For employment rights in Great Britain, the Employment Rights Act 1996 distinguishes employees from the wider group of workers. Someone outside both groups may be genuinely self-employed. “Freelancer”, “contractor” and “gig worker” are not separate legal statuses.
What are the rights of an employee?
Employees work under a contract of employment. They get worker rights plus statutory notice, family leave and the right to request flexible working. Unfair-dismissal protection and redundancy pay have qualifying conditions. An ongoing obligation to offer and accept work can point towards employment, but a regular rota alone does not settle it.
What is a limb (b) worker?
A limb (b) worker agrees to do work personally for someone who is not a client or customer of their own independent business. The name comes from section 230(3)(b) of the Act. It describes people who have core worker rights without the full rights of an employee.
You can be free to refuse the next shift yet be a worker during shifts you accept. Rights include minimum wage, paid holiday, rest breaks, protection against unlawful deductions and a written statement of particulars. Some workers also qualify for statutory pay and a workplace pension. Limb (b) workers do not normally have statutory notice, redundancy pay or ordinary unfair-dismissal rights.
What does genuinely self-employed mean?
You sell services to clients through your own independent business, rather than working as their employee or worker. You negotiate and enforce your contract. A client does not owe you statutory minimum wage or paid holiday, but that does not mean you have no legal protection. See self-employed rights below.
How to check if you are really self-employed
Check your employment rights separately from your tax status. HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax tool answers the tax question, not whether you have worker rights. For rights, start with these questions and the Acas employment-status guidance. There is no tick-box score: a tribunal weighs the whole relationship.
Must you do the work yourself?
A genuine ability to send someone else at your own expense can weigh heavily against having to do the work personally. A tightly restricted substitution right does not automatically defeat worker status. Check who chooses and pays the substitute, what approval the company can withhold and whether anyone has used the right in practice.
Who controls the job?
Who fixes the price, sets shifts, assigns customers, specifies methods and disciplines poor performance? You do not need a supervisor at a desk for someone to control your work. An app can allocate jobs and penalise refusals. Compare that with a designer who quotes a fixed price to several clients and chooses how to deliver each brief.
Are they your client, or are you working as part of their workforce?
Multiple clients, negotiated fees and expensive equipment can point to a business on your own account. So can the chance to profit by working efficiently and the risk of putting mistakes right at your cost. None is conclusive. Owning a bicycle does not turn a controlled courier into an independent firm.
What obligations continue between jobs?
Must the company offer work, and must you accept it? Continuing commitments may support employee status. You may still be a worker during accepted assignments even if you are free between them. A zero-hours contract does not automatically rule out employee status. See zero-hours contracts and rights.
What employment rights do freelance workers have?
| Right | Employee | Limb (b) worker | Genuinely self-employed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum wage; paid holiday; rest rights | Yes | Yes | No, from a client |
| Unlawful-deduction protection | Yes | Yes | Contract claim instead |
| Written employment particulars | From day one | From day one | No |
| Statutory Sick Pay | If eligible | Some: employed for tax and otherwise eligible | No |
| Statutory maternity or paternity pay | If eligible | Some, if statutory conditions met | No; Maternity Allowance may apply |
| Statutory family leave | If eligible | Generally no | No |
| Pension auto-enrolment | If eligible | If eligible | No, from a client |
| Discrimination protection | Yes | Usually | May apply to personal-service contracts |
| Unfair dismissal; redundancy pay | If qualifying conditions met | No ordinary entitlement | No |
Minimum wage and paid holiday
Employees are also workers in the broader statutory sense. We separate them in the table to show the extra rights. Under the holiday rules, most workers receive 5.6 weeks’ paid leave annually, pro rata where appropriate. You can opt out individually of the 48-hour average-week limit. Daily and weekly rest and breaks have their own rules. For eligible workers aged 21 or over, the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026.
Example: a courier’s missing pay
Ana, 30, receives £50 for seven hours of qualifying work. At £12.71 an hour, the minimum is 7 × £12.71 = £88.97. That leaves a £38.97 shortfall. Her effective hourly pay is about £7.14. First establish that Ana is a worker and which hours count under minimum-wage rules. Logging on alone is not proof. If all seven count, the shortfall is payable regardless of what her invoice calls her.
A regular three-day-a-week worker normally has 5.6 × 3 = 16.8 days of statutory holiday for a full leave year. Irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period, with statutory rounding rules, for leave years beginning from 1 April 2024. Rolled-up holiday pay is permitted for those groups, not for regular-hours workers. It must be an identifiable addition, not a reduction of ordinary wages. See our holiday pay guide.
Sick pay is a separate eligibility question
Statutory Sick Pay has its own eligibility test. Since 6 April 2026 the lower earnings limit and three waiting days are gone. It is paid from the first qualifying day at the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings. Some workers qualify because they are classed as employed for tax, including eligible agency workers. Being a limb (b) worker alone is not enough. Paying your own tax through self assessment does not, by itself, qualify you for SSP.
Example: an agency worker off sick
Ben is an eligible agency worker classed as employed for tax. His average weekly earnings are £150, and he has five qualifying days each week. The lower of £123.25 and 80% × £150 (£120) is £120 a week. If he misses four qualifying days, that is £120 ÷ 5 × 4 = £96 SSP. His entitlement starts with the first day of sickness, provided he meets the other conditions. A self-employed trader with the same income gets no SSP from a client.
Pension auto-enrolment can cover workers as well as employees, subject to age and earnings rules.
What rights do self-employed people have?
If you are genuinely self-employed, your agreement with the client is the starting point for payment and other terms. You can enforce that contract. You cannot claim statutory minimum wage, paid holiday or SSP from a client simply because you do work for them, and you do not have employee rights to statutory notice, redundancy pay or ordinary unfair-dismissal protection.
But “self-employed” does not mean “no rights”. These protections can still matter:
- Payment under your contract. If a client has not paid what you agreed, the route is a contract claim rather than a worker’s unlawful-deduction claim. Keep the agreed terms, invoices, messages and evidence of the work done.
- Protection against discrimination. The Equality Act 2010, section 83, can cover a contract personally to do work. Coverage depends on the relationship, rather than the self-employed label. See discrimination and contract workers.
- Health and safety. Safety duties can apply to self-employed people working on site. Being called a contractor does not remove those duties.
- Maternity Allowance. A self-employed parent may qualify for Maternity Allowance, subject to its own conditions. This is different from statutory maternity pay from an employer.
If the company treats you like staff but refuses holiday or minimum wage because you invoice them, check your status before accepting that you have only a contract claim.
Why Uber and Deliveroo came out differently
In Uber, drivers could reject trips, but Uber fixed fares, controlled access to passengers and used ratings to manage performance. The Supreme Court held they were workers. In that case, working time included periods when drivers were logged on in their operating area, ready and willing to accept trips. Do not assume every minute an app is open counts as paid time on every platform.
The Deliveroo judgment in 2023 concerned a particular group of riders and an application for union recognition. It did not settle every Deliveroo rider’s rights. The Central Arbitration Committee found that the riders’ broad right to appoint substitutes worked in practice. The Supreme Court dismissed the union’s Article 11 appeal. On those facts, the riders were not in an employment relationship for that Convention right. The domestic worker-status finding under trade-union law was not reopened on appeal.
If your contract has a substitution clause, look at what it allows you to do. Deliveroo’s riders did not need prior approval to appoint substitutes and faced no sanction for using them. A clause that cannot realistically be used may lead to a different finding. Neither the platform’s name nor a generic “self-employed” clause decides your case.
Does paying your own tax mean you have no worker rights?
Tax law generally asks whether you are employed or self-employed. It has no separate “worker” category. You may be a worker for employment rights and self-employed for tax. Filing a self-assessment return is not proof that you lack holiday rights. PAYE on a payslip does not itself give you unfair-dismissal rights either. Use HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax for the tax question, and assess your rights separately. A personal service company may raise IR35 issues too.
Agency workers and umbrella companies
Agency work is another arrangement, not a fourth status. Agency workers have basic worker rights from day one; the Agency Workers Regulations add equal treatment on basic working conditions, including pay, after 12 qualifying weeks in the same role with a hirer. Some breaks pause or reset that clock. A hirer and an agency can each have responsibilities, so identify which right and which organisation your complaint concerns.
Told you are self-employed but treated like staff?
Keep evidence of the real job as well as the contract. Save your care rota, warehouse scanner records, delivery-app logs, cleaning schedule, shop-floor instructions, payslips, rate changes, refused substitutions and messages about turning down shifts. Keep copies somewhere your employer cannot delete them. You can ask for a written statement and unpaid rights without first obtaining a certificate of worker status.
When you write to the company, explain the actual job: who sets your shifts and rates, whose instructions you follow and whether you must do the work yourself. Name the right you are asking for, such as unpaid holiday or minimum wage, and show the dates and amounts. Do not rely on asking them to change your job title.
You do not have to take this on alone. Unite represents many hospitality workers; UNISON supports care and health workers; USDAW represents retail workers; GMB and IWGB organise workers in other sectors, including platform work. Ask your union for advice or legal support. Otherwise try Acas, Citizens Advice or a local law centre. Report suspected minimum-wage underpayment to HMRC; suspected labour exploitation to the GLAA; unsafe work to the HSE; and discrimination to the EHRC. These routes do different jobs. A report does not stop your tribunal deadline.
- Work out the right and who owes it. Holiday pay, minimum wage, SSP and agency equal-treatment complaints can involve different parties and procedures. For SSP disputes, Acas points to HMRC’s statutory payment dispute team.
- Raise the problem in writing. Set out dates, hours, rates and what you are owed; keep copies. An internal grievance does not stop a tribunal clock.
- Check the event date and notify Acas in time. For most Great Britain tribunal claims about events on or after 1 October 2026, the limit is six months minus one day. For most earlier events it remains three months minus one day. Acas explains the exceptions and how notification within the limit pauses time for early conciliation.
- Consider a tribunal claim if unresolved. There is no tribunal fee and you do not need a solicitor to submit a claim. Claims involving a series of deductions, old holiday arrears or several respondents need individual deadline advice; a new six-month limit does not revive an expired claim. See how to bring a tribunal claim.
Are freelance workers’ rights changing?
The government’s Employment Rights Act 2025 timetable separates measures already in force from those still to come. Future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes.
- SSP changes in force
The earnings floor and waiting days ended; the weekly rate is now the lower of £123.25 and 80% of average weekly earnings for those otherwise eligible.
- Fair Work Agency established
It brought together agency standards and labour-abuse enforcement. HMRC still delivers minimum-wage enforcement under contract until the planned full transfer in April 2027; expanded holiday-pay enforcement is also planned for 2027.
- Longer tribunal window in force
Most claims arising from events on or after this date have six months minus one day. Earlier events generally keep their old limit; Scotland’s contract-claim change begins on 9 November 2026.
- Unfair-dismissal reform scheduled
The ordinary qualifying period is due to fall from two years to six months and the compensatory-award cap is due to end. The commencement regulations turn on the effective date of termination, including where notice of dismissal was given earlier.
Does this apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland?
The status tests and rights above apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Scotland has a specific exception on tribunal timing: the new six-month limit for breach-of-employment-contract claims applies where the effective date of termination or last day worked is on or after 9 November 2026, not 1 October.
Northern Ireland has a parallel employment-status framework under the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, but employment law is devolved. The Great Britain Employment Rights Act 2025 changes described above do not automatically extend there. Disputes go to Industrial Tribunals, and the Labour Relations Agency handles conciliation rather than Acas. The Good Jobs reforms are proposals, not the law set out in this article. Check nidirect and our Northern Ireland guide before using any GB deadline or rate.
Questions people ask
Are there separate freelance laws in the UK?
“Freelance” is not a separate employment status with its own set of rights. Your rights depend on whether the actual job makes you an employee, a worker or genuinely self-employed. Contract, discrimination and health-and-safety protections can still matter if you are genuinely self-employed. Northern Ireland has separate employment legislation and advice routes, explained above.
My contract calls me self-employed. Can I still claim holiday pay?
Yes, if the real arrangement makes you a worker or employee. Personal service, the client’s control and whether you actually run a separate business matter more than the contract label. Keep records of shifts, pay and any attempted substitutions.
Can a gig worker get sick pay?
Some can. Worker status alone is not the SSP test. You must be classed as employed for tax and meet the other conditions. From 6 April 2026 eligible people get SSP from the first qualifying day, without an earnings floor. Paying your own tax through self assessment does not qualify you on that basis.
Does refusing shifts make me self-employed?
No. You may have no duty to take the next assignment yet still be a worker when you accept and perform one. Whether you run an independent business is a separate question. A zero-hours contract does not automatically prevent employee status either.
Does a substitution clause rule out worker status?
Not by itself. The tribunal asks whether the right is genuine and how extensive it is. The Deliveroo case concerned a broad substitute right actually available to the riders involved; narrow or unusable clauses can lead to a different result.
Have tribunal deadlines doubled for old underpayments?
Not automatically. For most events before 1 October 2026 the old three-months-minus-one-day limit still applies. For most events from that date it is six months minus one day. A series of deductions or unpaid holiday can raise separate questions about the last event and recoverable arrears. Check dates promptly and notify Acas within time.
Sources
- Employment Rights Act 1996, section 230, legislation.gov.uk
- Employment status, Acas
- Employment status and employment rights, update of 1 October 2026, Department for Business and Trade
- Make Work Pay: employment-status reform and protections for the self-employed, consultation published 14 October 2026, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
- Employment-status reform and protections for the self-employed, consultation document, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
- New action to crackdown on bogus self-employment loopholes, 14 October 2026, GOV.UK
- Uber BV v Aslam [2021] UKSC 5, The National Archives
- IWGB v CAC [2023] UKSC 43, The National Archives
- Minimum wage rates, GOV.UK
- Holiday entitlement and accrual, GOV.UK
- Statutory Sick Pay and eligibility, Acas
- Agency equal treatment, GOV.UK
- Employment tribunal time limits, Acas
- Employment Rights Act implementation timetable, GOV.UK
- Fair Work Agency delivery plan, GOV.UK
- Unfair-dismissal transitional provisions, legislation.gov.uk
- Equality Act 2010, section 83, legislation.gov.uk
- Minimum wage Naming Round 23, Department for Business and Trade, HMRC and Fair Work Agency
- Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: October to December 2025, Ministry of Justice