Bogus self-employment is a burden on the state

The government must close the loopholes that are allowing bogus self-employment practices that cause an extra burden on the welfare state while reducing the tax contributions that sustain it the House of Commons’ Work and Pension Committee said in its report on the gig economy.

In an inquiry that had to be curtailed because of the snap election MPs heard from gig economy companies including Uber Amazon Hermes and Deliveroo and from individuals who worked for them. Many companies promote the idea that flexible employment is contingent on self-employed status but the committee said this was a fiction. It denied workers the rights that came with ‘employee’ or ‘worker’ status and failed to protect them from exploitation and poor working conditions.

The committee said that an assumption of the employment status of ‘worker’ by default rather than ‘self-employed’ would protect both...