False self-employment campaign

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is running a public information campaign to raise awareness about false self-employment in Ireland. False self-employment is an employment relationship where it looks as if you are self-employed but you are actually an employee. If your employment is wrongly classed as self-employment, it affects your employment rights and the social welfare payments you are entitled to.

The Department wants to ensure that workers and employers are aware that they can provide a determination on an individual’s employment status. This means the Department can decide whether a person is actually an employee or self-employed – where this is in question.

In most cases it will be clear whether an individual is employed or self-employed. However, in some cases it may not always be obvious. A brief overview of false self-employment is provided here, with information on how it can affect you, and how the Department can help as well as links to other useful services.