I believe you are thinking of people who set up companies and pay themselves through dividends (which have a much lower tax rate), which is now (highly controversially) illegal -- search for "IR35".

Ordinary self-employed people and sole traders pay nearly the same tax rates as employed people (National Insurance, a strange disguised tax, is at a different rate), but have many fewer rights, eg. no right to paid time off or sick pay.

The question in this case is whether Uber drivers are self-employed or not. Not as it turns out.

> pay themselves through dividends (which have a much lower tax rate), which is now (highly controversially) illegal

What on earth are you talking about... taking out dividends is not illegal, even for individual company owners. IR35 is about HMRC forcing self employed people to apply payroll taxes as if they were employed. Again, nothing to do with dividends.

But that has a social impact. You might be chuckling to yourself over how much NI you're not paying, but if you are injured the NHS will still treat you, and the money has to come from somewhere.

That's interesting, in the US it is the opposite, although you might be able to write off certain things as expenses so your overall taxable income is lower.