I worked as a volunteer, not an employee. I also could've been volunteering looking after plants, or sitting around doing nothing in particular except chatting

I worked as a volunteer, not an employee. I also could've been volunteering looking after plants, or sitting around doing nothing in particular except chatting with people, and the organisation would've likely signed off on it. I also could've been volunteering as the one person who knew how to manage the sound system and turned up for two hours a week but was the reason we had any customers at all. There's no reason some random company is trustworthy, or some arbitrary amount of time is valued specifically. Would self-employed work not count under your system? What if I was doing something with the hope that it will make money in future? What if it's not, in fact, intended to make money at all, but would be non-profit work? If I set up a company that would sign off on me and my friends, would that change anything?