IPSE is the association of independent professionals and the self-employed. With over 21,000 members, we are the largest association of independent professionals in the European Union. We represent freelancers, contractors and consultants from every sector of the economy, providing advice, support and lobbying on behalf of self-employed people across the United Kingdom.
There has been a stratospheric rise in the numbers of self-employed workers, with a record high of 4.6 million people working in this way either. Economists seem to agree that this is not simply a response to the recession and that the growth in self-employment is here to stay – a structural rather than a cyclical shift in the economy. We believe the next government must have a comprehensive plan to respond to this change in the labour market. To this end we have prepared a manifesto outlining the measures government must take in 2015 and beyond to truly unleash the full potential of Britain’s growing army of self-employed people.
The Labour party is taking the rise in self-employment seriously. Indeed, Ed Miliband made specific reference to the self-employed in his speech, and the shadow business and the Department for Work and Pensions teams held a summit on self-employment in November. The summit was important, and brought into light that the self-employed are not a homogeneous group of workers. As well as a minority of vulnerable, low-paid workers, there are also many more secure, well-paid people who work for themselves out of choice, not out of necessity. Surveys consistently show that the vast majority of the self-employed are happy working in this way and would not choose to be employed instead.
The challenge for the Labour party going forward is to find balanced policies which on the one hand protect low-paid and vulnerable workers, but in the process encourage a secure, flourishing group of self-employed people, by making sure it is easy to become self-employed, easy to do business as self-employed, and easy to engage the self-employed.
In our manifesto we have proposed a minister for self-employment. The current government has recently appointed a self-employed ambassador, which has come as very welcome news. We hope that in the next government this will be upgraded into a full ministerial role, giving this group a stronger voice.
Maternity pay must be re-examined too. There is no reason why hard-working self-employed people should receive a different amount to employees when caring for a child. Employees can receive 90 per cent of their income for six weeks, yet the self-employed receive only a low fixed amount. Again this is something the current government is looking at. This is an issue that cuts across party lines, and the Labour party could really make a difference to self-employed women by taking this issue up.
Our manifesto also emphasises the need for dramatic change in the tax treatment of training for the self-employed. The current tax system rewards employees training for a new skill, but gives no such benefit for the self-employed. Once again, we believe both groups of workers should be treated the same.
Finally, late payment needs to be tackled, and aggressively. The Labour party has made some very encouraging steps on this issue and has strong policies in this area. The creation of a low-cost small business conciliation service to resolve disputes would be a further way to help to solve this problem.
The choice to work for yourself is a brave one, and the UK should be supporting those who choose to work this way. Addressing these issues would achieve the right balance of giving the self-employed a voice, protecting them from risk, yet letting those genuinely in business to continue to work unhindered.
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George Anastasi is policy development manager at IPSE