Employed/self employed in same job question

Charityworker

Bit of a long story so bare with me.

I work for a charity where my bosses are a board of trustees and committee members. So not 1 overall boss. I work for 16 hours a week on the minimum wage of £6.08 an hour. My employers have never registered as an employer with the hmrc as they do not fit the criteria to. I earn under the threshold for them to register so they do not need to register for tax or national insurance. I type my own payslip out and write my own wages cheque out every 4 weeks. I've been working there for 3 years with this arrangement.

The problem is that my job has never been very secure. The charity, like any other, depends on donations and successful funding bids. I'm worried incase they make me redundant. For housing benefit purposes I'm sure I would need a p45. I spoke to our treasurer about voluntarily registering with the hmrc yesterday and she said she doesn't want to do it as it would give her loads of unnecessary paperwork.

I also spoke to someone else yesterday who said to me 'why don't you go self employed?'. I gather I would bill them every 4 weeks for the hours I've done?

Surely though I would still need to show a p45 to housing benefit to show that employment was ending and self employment starting? Even if it is for the same employer, doing the same job for the same amount?

My biggest problem in all of this is the lack of p45 or p60 every year. It's not a legal requirement for an employer to give one. Only if you earn over the threshold. Is there a way of ordering your own one? How would the hmrc know how much you've earnt if they've never let them know?

Charityworker

Update. I think I've just registered my employer on the hmrc website. As manager of the charity I have taken it upon myself to do this. Problem is I've put my first pay day with them as march 2009 (which it was). I'm expecting that to be a problem? This may have just solved a potential big problem. Anyone with any further advice?

SarEl

I'd think the bigger problem will be when you get sacked by your employer for acting without their authority - manager or not you had no authority to do this and certainly not when they expressly told you that they did not wish to. Your employment has just got a lot less secure than it was three hours ago.

Sambucus_Nigra

Charityworker wrote: »

Update. I think I've just registered my employer on the hmrc website. As manager of the charity I have taken it upon myself to do this. Problem is I've put my first pay day with them as march 2009 (which it was). I'm expecting that to be a problem? This may have just solved a potential big problem. Anyone with any further advice?

Wow.

Which potential big problem did it solve, as an aside?

ohreally

Charityworker wrote: »

Anyone with any further advice?

Duck, run and hide. If they are precious over a bit of paper work, what position will they take resulting from you registering the organisation? What are the implications for their other employees?

Does the registration fall within your remit, if so why take so long and why ask the treasurer her thoughts? Are the board likely to view your actions as having crossed a line?

SarEl

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Wow.

Which potential big problem did it solve, as an aside?

The OP's - they won't need to worry about redundancy any more

Sambucus_Nigra

SarEl wrote: »

The OP's - they won't need to worry about redundancy any more

Good point.

I was being facetious - in that they said that the 'The problem is that my job has never been very secure' and, well, if that was the problem; then this was not the solution!

SarEl

I think the problem was that they wanted a P45 / P60 for a housing benefit claim - which of course they never required because payslips and proof of earnings from the employer (a letter) would have done nicely.

tigeress289

Pointless saying you had rights as an employee, as it now looks like your next stop will be a claim for JSA. As stated, you only needed a letter from your employer. Why on earth did you do what you did?

Charityworker

Please don't jump to conclusions before you know the full story.

We had a board meeting 2 days ago where EVERY member of the committee voted that they should register as an employer. It was agreed. It wasn't agreed that I should register as self employed, that was an after thought I had. Then the day after the meeting the treasurer (who originally voted yes) changed her mind as it would be too much paperwork for her.

I texted the chairperson before I filled the hmrc form in and said I was about to do it and asked for her NI number and she said it was fine.

Oh and by the way you do need your p45 for housing benefit purposes. They won't take the "my employer didn't comply with it" excuse.

There isn't any other employees at the charity. But if there ever were in future I'm sure they will be thankful that they will receive a p60 and p45.

You know I used to be on this board years ago under a different name but I stopped coming on here because of threads going this way (people thinking they know the full story when they don't). I'm beginning to remember why I left. Only thing is it's a different group of people.

tigeress289

Sorry, but the post has gone in a different direction. The point being made was that you would never normally backdate a company 3 years, as this could cause a lot of problems. It would have been easier to claim JSA first, to get housing benefit and then stated you had part time work. I think your post should have been slightly more detailed to begin with? I have not been on here long and not ever post is what I might want to read, but overall I think there are some excellent people on here giving some great advice.