NEWS
, In reference to Small Business Saturday, the majority of UK micro-business owners could be seriously risking their health by not taking time off from work when they are sick, according to new research. In a survey of more than 500 freelancers and micro-businesses carried out by cloud accounting software company FreeAgent, an overwhelming 82% of respondents admitted that they had worked through an illness at some point while running their own business because they felt they “could not afford to take time off”. The research also revealed that many micro-business owners are regularly working long hours, with nearly a third (30%) of respondents saying that they said they worked more than 48 hours per week on their business. In addition, 5% admitted that they spent more than 64 hours each week working. FreeAgent - which makes award-winning cloud accounting software for micro-businesses, freelancers and accountants believes that the results should be a wake-up call for the 5.2 million people running freelance and micro-businesses across the UK. Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, said: “Running a small business can be incredibly tough. From working long hours and spending most of your time on admin, right through to the stress of maintaining a healthy cash flow and finding new customers, it’s a very demanding and often overwhelming job.” “But what makes self-employment especially tough is that there is rarely any kind of safety net in place to help protect you from the unforeseen. If you’re too sick to work, you won’t make any money - and it’s clear that many micro-business owners feel that they have to tough through an illness rather than actually taking time to rest and recuperate.”
“That’s just not a sustainable solution in the long run and it means that the UK’s micro-business sector could actually actually putting its health at serious risk.” Earlier this year, a separate poll carried out by FreeAgent and The Freelancer & Contractor Services Association (FCSA) revealed that 76% of self-employed people currently do not have any method of providing sick pay, maternity/paternity leave, holiday or redundancy pay in their business. The research results - which were submitted to the government in advance of the Taylor Review - also showed that sick pay provision was the benefit that self-employed people would most welcome, coming way ahead of other benefits such as maternity pay, job seekers allowance and pension auto-enrolment. Ed adds: “In an ideal world, micro-business owners would be able to put money aside to cover periods of sickness and give themselves a chance to properly recover. But in reality, this isn’t usually possible. For many, self-employment can be a handto-mouth existence and they don’t have the required funds available to protect themselves from the unexpected. “With the government currently considering ‘levelling the playing field’ when it comes to the amount of tax that employed and self-employed people pay, I would like to see some focus being put on this issue - and potentially the introduction of support to help people who run their own businesses mitigate the risks of self-employment and ensure that they do not put their health in jeopardy. “We know that sick pay is the one benefit that freelancers and micro-business owners are most interested in receiving, so hopefully progress can be made towards providing this kind of safety net for them in the future.”
Businesses Not Taking Advantage of Tax Exemptions to Reward Staff An Increasing number of British businesses would like to regularly reward their staff but feel limited by budgets, according to new research.
What’s more, 62% of workers said that rewards in the form of a gift voucher or card which allows them to choose their own reward, would have the biggest impact on their attitude towards work.
However, fewer than one in ten employers are aware of the government allowances that would allow them to make the tax-exempt awards, allowing them to more regularly give small rewards to boost staff productivity and morale.
Almost half (47%) of UK workers stated that they would most appreciate a bonus or reward not linked to their performance at Christmas, 32% would like to receive a bonus after a particularly busy period at work and 26% on their birthday.
A survey of 1,500 UK workers and business leaders by One4all Rewards, as part of a campaign to raise awareness of HMRC’s Trivial Benefits Allowance, revealed that 83% of British bosses would like to give regular bonuses and rewards to their employees in a bid to boost employee morale, motivation and loyalty.
Alan Smith, UK Managing Director of One4all Rewards, said: “There is lots of potential for British businesses to offer non-performance related benefits to their staff under the latest HMRC changes to the workplace benefits rule.
More than half (53%) of British business leaders said that they do not currently give their employees non-performance related benefits because the business does not have enough budget and cannot afford them. In April 2016 HMRC made changes to workplace benefits rules to allow businesses to benefit from the exemption - reducing tax and National Insurance Contributions charges. However, only 10% of businesses are currently making use of the tax exemption on trivial benefits. Just over a fifth (22%) of UK businesses are aware of the tax relief available on trivial benefits, with only 11% planning to make use of them before the end of the current tax year. Despite the relatively small sums involved, the survey showed that receiving this kind of benefit would improve workers’ morale (48%), make them feel more loyal to the company (35%) and even motivated to work harder (31%).
“The changes to the workplace benefits rule have been introduced to help businesses similar to those we surveyed, who have limited budgets to reward their employees. “We can see from the research that only a small proportion of businesses are currently making use of the tax exemption on trivial benefits, however, 11% of UK bosses are intending to make use of the tax exemption before the end of their tax year. “As Christmas was highlighted as the top season workers would like to receive a benefit, now is the perfect time for business leaders to consider making the most of the tax exemptions on non-performance related trivial benefits.” One4all Rewards are industry experts in benefits and rewards. Working with over 6,000 businesses of all sizes nationwide, One4all Rewards helps to transform customer and employee relationships through successful rewards and incentive schemes.
CORPORATE VISION / December 2017 5