Newly Self-employed? Thinking of going it alone?
Self-employment suits many people, their families and style of work. The longer they do it, the better it gets.
But starting up isn’t always easy. There are new problems to face without help from someone in charge.
Our stories are based on true experiences. We use and refer to official information sources.
Government help. But is it working? This government scheme is a bridge into self-employment for people on Job Seekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Income Support. Here’s the deal. The Scheme gives you a weekly allowance for the first 6 months of self-employment IF your business plan has been approved and you work on your business for 16 or more hours a week from the […]
Awareness. Expertise. Experience. TalkSelfEmploy is a blog facilitated by Citizens Advice Reigate & Banstead. We’re asking self-employed people, business owners/managers and experts to help us: Raise Awareness. Promote Expertise. Share Experience. Self-employment is great. It suits many people, their families and style of work. The longer they do it, the better it gets. But starting can be difficult and lonely. There […]
Fighting exploitation. The Uber court judgement (enthusiasts only) challenges the freedoms many gig economy workers love. Some of them use the Uber model to top-up their income from another job. Others, including students, use it to earn extra cash. But the focus on tech business and digital communication risks moving attention away from the continuing […]
Delay requested. The government wants to bring in Making Tax Digital reforms in 2017. It means the end of annual returns in favour of filing online each quarter. This is too soon for many self-employed and small business people. Now a committee of MPs has written to the Treasury showing why a delay is necessary. […]
No standard benefits. I’ve been working for about 18 months as a driver for a company that provides transport to hospitals. When I joined I had been unemployed for about 9 months so I was very keen to find work. When the company said I had to be self-employed I agreed although many of my […]
It’s a good life (or can be). Evening Standard feature 16 September highlights the ups and downsides of self-employment. ‘Self-employed are on the rise but pay the price in work rights.’ Long read but worth a look if only for realistic comments like: ‘The self-employed are entrepreneurs but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have ambitious […]
Who is my customer? I am a heating engineer and occasionally have to respond to what some would call emergencies. I was called a month ago regarding a boiler that didn’t seem to be delivering any hot water, the member of the public was very distraught as they had had no hot water for 3 […]
Surge continues. The rise in self-employment goes on. Latest official figures (March-May 2016) showed 176,000 more people in work than the previous 3 months. 119,000 (67%) were self-employed. There are now nearly 4.8 million self-employed people in a working population of 31.7 million. The number of self-employed has risen by 800,000 since 2008. This would be good news […]