Is Rising Self-Employment Associated with Material Deprivation in the UK?

Abstract

Rising self-employment may indicate growing precarity. This article investigates poverty in self-employment in the UK using a large-scale official household survey for 2010 to 2019 through a focus on material deprivation. The principal finding is that, after controlling for the selective nature of self-employment, self-employed households may experience higher levels of material deprivation than employed ones. This is particularly so for those without children and access to welfare and other support that children may bring. This finding is consistent with previous research on the reliability of self-employment earnings data. It also may highlight the impact of precarious self-employment on low earning households. This is apparent in detailed analysis of earnings and material deprivation gaps at different points of the distribution, where self-employed households rely more on the income of one self-employed earner.