Citizens Advice (CA) have conducted research into bogus self-employment, i.e. when workers are told they are self-employed when the legal tests would likely define them as employees. The report reveals that CA suspect that one in ten of the people they surveyed are bogusly self-employed, with at least three markers suggesting that their self-employment is not genuine. If scaled up, this could translate into as many as 460,000 people nationwide. CA take the view that responsible businesses face a competitive disadvantage to other employers which hire bogusly self-employed staff and that many responsible employers struggle to be certain that they are categorising their staff properly. The report contains recommendations to help redress the balance, which includes a suggestion that the Government defines employment status in a simplified and intelligible way.

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