A clear verdict — employee, worker, or self-employed
You get one plain answer, not a maybe. When the answer is genuinely borderline, we say so honestly rather than guess.
Status Advisor
Is this person an employee, a worker, or self‑employed?
Answer 12 plain-English questions and know for certain — in about five minutes, with the law it stands on.
No card required £14.99 a month after Cancel anytime
Employment status determination
Liam Carter
DeterminationEmployee
Must do the work himselfHe cannot send someone else in his place.
You set the hours and the placeDay-to-day control points to employment.Ready Mixed Concrete v MPNI (1968)
The landmark case. It says an employer must control the work — telling the person what to do, and when and where to do it.
Read the official guidanceRef FE-DET-2026-0341
Rules engine v2026.2
Rules engine v2026.2
The problem
Why does getting this one thing wrong cost so much?
Employees, workers and the self-employed each get a different set of rights — and hand you a different set of duties. Call someone self-employed when the law says they are an employee, and you can owe back-taxes, holiday pay and a penalty, years later, with interest.
Most first-time employers guess, or pay an accountant £500 to decide. Status Advisor asks you 12 plain questions and gives you a firm answer — one you can keep, dated, and backed by the exact law it rests on.
£45,000
the penalty HMRC can charge for getting employment status and payroll wrong — the fear Status Advisor is built to remove.
What you get
What does the check actually give you?
No jargon, no guesswork. Every step is written for a nine-year-old to follow, and every answer shows its working.
12 plain questions, one at a time
No legal words without a translation right next to them. Answer on your phone, on the sofa, in about five minutes. It saves as you go.
Every answer shows its working
Tap the receipt on any point to see the exact law in plain English.
Employment Rights Act 1996, section 230
The law splits working people into employees and workers. An employee works under a contract of employment and gets the strongest set of rights.
Read the official guidanceA dated document you can keep
Your determination is saved to your vault — proof of what you decided, and when, if anyone ever asks.
Honest when it is not clear-cut
If your answers sit on the line, we tell you plainly and point you to free Acas advice before you go further.
Where this fits
What comes before, and what comes next?
Status Advisor Employer setup Contracts Right to work Dashboard
Common questions
Still wondering about a few things?
We would rather be honest than guess. If your answers sit on the line between employee, worker and self-employed, we tell you plainly instead of forcing a verdict. Then we point you to free, confidential advice from the Acas helpline, and record that you were advised to get it.
No. Status Advisor applies the same tests a tribunal uses — control, personal service and a two-way promise of work — and shows you the law behind each one. It is a clear, documented starting point, not a substitute for a solicitor on a genuinely difficult case. When a case is that difficult, we say so.
Your determination is a dated record of the answers you gave and the law they point to. It shows you took reasonable care to get status right — which is exactly what HMRC looks for. Keep it in your vault alongside your other documents, ready if anyone asks.
About five minutes. Twelve questions, one at a time, in plain English. You can stop whenever you like — it saves your answers and picks up exactly where you left off.
Know exactly who you're hiring — before you hire them.
Start with the status check. It is free to try, and it decides everything that comes after.
Start free trial No card required £14.99 a month, not £2,000