UC and selfemployed

leveller2911

spacey2012 wrote: »

Same old Fking Tories again !

Not sure why you make a political point when the last Labour Government did didly squat to help small businesses either.

They cut spending on apprenticeships and vocational training whilst at the same time increasing business rates for many small businesses, inplementing vat charges on insurance etc and endless bureaucracy. Nu-Labour made benefits a lifestyle choice for some and at least the Con-Dems are trying to encourage people to work.

For 13 years we had Labour bribing the working class with benefits ,so if that means some need to go through "cold turkey" to find the work ethic then so be it. The UK has suffered from poor Governments by Nu-Labour and the Tories for decades.Theres no long term good in paying people huge sums in tax credits etc for only working 16hrs a week (previous rules). If you give someone with 4 kids £15k a year in benefits (CTC,WTC,HB, CTB,etc) for working 16hrs a week of coarse they won't like working 40 hrs a week.

I also believe the Con-Dems could do a lot more by abolishing business rates, massively increase vocational training (currently just lip service) and hand out some tax breaks. FWIW I don't think small start-up businesses should have more than 1 year to prove they are viable. You only have to look at the massive increase in self employed Avon collectors and Betterware collectors purely to comply with benefit rules, it had nothing to do with starting viable businesses.

As someone who has run their own (profitable) business for over 20 years the Tories are the lesser of 2 evils ........by a long way.

BigAunty

The govt white paper setting out proposals for UC made it clear their disappointment with the long-term benefit dependency of the self employed and desire that they become more self sufficient from their businesses, hence the shift in emphasis from tax credits which only demand that the self employed are 'busy' for x hours per week, to UC which sets targets for profit.

It said that those with failing businesses should consider winding them up and/or seeking regular employment.

There are currently around 675,000 self employed people claiming WTC. I haven't found any stats that give an idea of timeline trends, or how many benefit claimants receiving WTC have eventually left the benefits system though.

im-lost

To be honest, if your 'business' and I use that term extremely loosely, isn't making enough profit to pay a single person 30 hours at minimum wage, then it's not really a business, it's a hobby that's taking income away from those in proper businesses and struggling because every man and his dog are undercutting them, because they are getting topups from the state.

It really gets my goat that people think they can become self employed, not even earn a proper wage and scrounge off the state for a topup. There was a time when people setup a business, struggled to make ends meet, with the view of eventually being in a better position, not setting up a 'business' in order to squeeze every penny they could in benefits, because that is essentially what the majority of these micro businesses are set up for.

Where is the incentive to build the business up if you're having your begging bowl filled up weekly?

I for one welcome the changes, I hope a lot of these micro 'businesses' do fail, it will be no loss to the economy, because they put nothing in to it as it is, and it'll open up more opportunities for those of us that actually want to setup on our own and not be reliant on the state.

Percy1983

im-lost wrote: »

To be honest, if your 'business' and I use that term extremely loosely, isn't making enough profit to pay a single person 30 hours at minimum wage, then it's not really a business, it's a hobby that's taking income away from those in proper businesses and struggling because every man and his dog are undercutting them, because they are getting topups from the state.

It really gets my goat that people think they can become self employed, not even earn a proper wage and scrounge off the state for a topup. There was a time when people setup a business, struggled to make ends meet, with the view of eventually being in a better position, not setting up a 'business' in order to squeeze every penny they could in benefits, because that is essentially what the majority of these micro businesses are set up for.

Where is the incentive to build the business up if you're having your begging bowl filled up weekly?

I for one welcome the changes, I hope a lot of these micro 'businesses' do fail, it will be no loss to the economy, because they put nothing in to it as it is, and it'll open up more opportunities for those of us that actually want to setup on our own and not be reliant on the state.

This is it, why should they be subsidised.

I will say my business is still in the micro business phase as the work is so seasonal, in short it only pays for 3 months of the year. With that I a growing it while maintaining a full time job and it is growing year on year so hopefully it won't be micro forever.

M.Johnson_2

Unemployment numbers are coming down, this is what the government wants so soon interest rates can go back up to normal. If UC pushes everyone who is on WTC into the unemployment numbers it will be a disaster. I can see UC being delayed or changed a lot.

M.Johnson_2

Percy1983 wrote: »

This is it, why should they be subsidised.

I will say my business is still in the micro business phase as the work is so seasonal, in short it only pays for 3 months of the year. With that I a growing it while maintaining a full time job and it is growing year on year so hopefully it won't be micro forever.

I dont know what seasonal S.E businesses will do after UC comes in?

leveller2911

M.Johnson wrote: »

I dont know what seasonal S.E businesses will do after UC comes in?

No such thing as "seasonal self employed". When someone is self employed they work for themselves all year round and its up to them to find work (of any description).

Your thinking of "seasonal jobs" not seasonal self employed. Nothing stopping people from finding other work "out of season".

Percy1983

As above my self employment is rather seasonal, but I do also have a full time job to support me so its no problem.

Likewise if your self employment is seasonal and your only income find another income for the rest of the year.