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The way people earn a living in the UK is evolving. The traditional nine to five, single employer career path still exists, but it no longer defines every applicant. Today’s workforce is characterised by flexibility, independence and variety - from freelance consultants and directors of limited companies to sole traders and gig economy workers.
While this shift empowers individuals to take control of their careers, it also challenges the systems used to verify employment or income. Background screening, referencing and financial decisioning processes are still largely built around a standard PAYE model. The result is friction, not because workers are difficult to verify, but because many existing systems were not designed to verify or process how they actually work.
Over the past decade, the concept of a “job for life” has become the exception. Workers now move fluidly between roles, industries and types of employment. They might combine PAYE roles with freelance work, operate through their own limited companies, or move in and out of employment depending on project needs or personal circumstances.
This diversity has become particularly visible in the rise of self-employment. But self-employment itself is not one single category. It is a broad spectrum of arrangements, each with its own documentation, financial structure and verification challenges.
To design better verification processes, we must first understand the real people behind the data. Here are some of the most common types of self-employed workers in the UK:
Sarah, the Sole Trader Consultant - 6.5% of the tax population
Sarah is a freelance marketing consultant who works with small businesses and charities. She operates under her own name and invoices clients directly for her services. At the end of the tax year, she files a Self Assessment return with HMRC to report her income and allowable expenses.
Sarah has no payslips, no company structure, and no employer references. Her income varies from month to month depending on client demand, and her only consistent financial records are her invoices, bank statements and annual tax return. She represents the largest group of self-employed individuals in the UK and typifies the kind of applicant who often gets slowed down in traditional verification systems built around payroll data.
James, the Limited Company Director - 0.2% of the tax population
James runs a small web development agency called "Pixel & Code Ltd". He is the sole director and shareholder. While his company is registered and looks formal on paper, his personal income comes from a combination of salary (through PAYE) and dividends from company profits.
Because of this structure, some months James only draws a small salary, while others he issues a dividend. His tax profile straddles both PAYE and Self Assessment, and unless both are captured, a verifier may miss key income details. James represents the 0.2% of the population who operate through a limited company, a group small in number but common in contracting-heavy sectors.
Priya, the PAYE Director - 2% of the tax population
Priya is a co-founder and director of an interior design firm. She appears on the company’s payroll, so on the surface she looks like a traditional employee. But as a director and part-owner, she also takes dividend payments when the business performs well.
This dual structure is tax-efficient but confusing to many verification systems. If only her PAYE income is picked up, it looks low; if only her Self Assessment is reviewed, key salary information may be missed. Priya is part of the 2% of the tax population who sit in this hybrid model, often slipping through the cracks of standard verification flows.
Daniel, the Portfolio Worker - Unclassified / hybrid income
Daniel wears many hats. He works part-time at a university as a researcher (PAYE), runs his own photography side business (Sole Trader), and does occasional contract editing work via a freelance platform. His income flows from multiple streams across different formats, payroll, invoices and royalties.
Daniel’s employment history is rich but fragmented. There is no single employer to contact, no consolidated payslip, and data lives in different formats. Verifying his employment and income means stitching together sources that traditional systems aren’t built to connect. Daniel reflects a growing cohort of workers who blend roles to build flexible careers.
Ahmed, the CIS Contractor - Specific to the Construction Industry Scheme
Ahmed is a self-employed electrician working on residential building sites. He’s registered under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), which means his income is taxed at source by contractors. He receives monthly CIS statements instead of payslips, and files a Self Assessment return each year to reconcile any overpaid tax.
While Ahmed doesn’t have an employer, his work is regular and his income stable. However, CIS documentation is unfamiliar to many verification systems. Without specific parsing logic or contextual understanding, verifiers may request inappropriate documents or misclassify his employment altogether. Ahmed represents a large share of UK construction workers who fall into this tax category.
Traditional verification processes are linear: contact an employer, check payroll records, confirm with HMRC. These work well for simple, full-time employment, but they start to unravel when faced with any of the personas above.
When a sole trader has no employer, who do you contact? When income is split across salary and dividends, what source provides the full picture? When a person works multiple short contracts across the year, how do you prove continuity?
For these individuals, checks often revert to manual document requests. Applicants are asked to email tax returns, screenshots or PDFs. Verifiers must review inconsistent formats. The experience becomes slow, fragmented and high risk.
Verifying employment and income is a core part of hiring, referencing and lending decisions. But doing it well requires systems that reflect the modern reality. That does not mean abandoning digital solutions. It means building verification journeys that are designed for how people actually work, not just how they used to.
The first step is recognising the diversity of employment arrangements. The second is supporting that diversity with verification tools that adapt intelligently, provide structured outputs and remove the need for manual back and forth.
This is not just about technology. It is about fairness, inclusion and reducing unnecessary barriers for millions of workers who contribute to the economy in ways that traditional models cannot fully capture.
As the diversity of employment models continues to grow, so too does the need for verification systems that reflect how people really work. Traditional checks were built for a world of single employers and simple records. Today’s workforce needs something more flexible, inclusive and intelligent.
Konfir’s verification waterfall brings together multiple trusted data sources to verify employment and income in one consistent journey. Soon, this will extend even further, enabling customers to verify self-employment through the same secure and structured flow they already use for other employment types. This means fewer applicants left behind, and more verifications completed, no matter how someone works.
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