Self-employed or business income

If you don't know what you'll earn tell us what you think it will probably be.

What we need to know:

• the amount before tax (gross) or estimate for that week, or the hourly rate
• the number of hours you work in a week.

Business income

You'll need to contact us to provide:

• profit or loss account
• balance sheet
• current account (if separate from the balance sheet).

If you start a new job we also need to know:

• who you work for (this could be more than one employer or yourself)
• when you started work.

The easiest way to tell us about your earnings is online, using MyMSD.

• If you've already told us about your income, it will show in MyMSD and you can change this from the home screen.
• If you haven't told us about your income yet, you need to select 'Declare wages' and then 'Change other income'.

You need to tell us:

• how much the payment is before tax
• when you're paid
• how often you get this payment.

Keep us up to date

If you don't tell us, we'll keep paying you the same benefit week after week. This could be too little or too much, and you could get into debt. Tell us every time your income changes.

You can use our automated phone line, Service Express. Call 0800 33 30 30, speak normally and say what you want to do.

If you think the amount you entered in My Account isn't right, correct this as soon as you can by logging back into My Account.

If you need to change your estimate after 6pm on Friday, call us before midday on the following Monday.