How Low Can You Go?

[Sub]

To me the lowest possible rate is the one that generates substantially more take-home income than benefits (all that I can possibly get) would do. While I have never earned less than I'd spend and never got close to prospect to live off benefits, it is really does not make sense to spend 8-10 hours working for what you could get doing nothing.

Low rate to me is the rate that allowing sustain the current lifestyle, but does not allow to save anything. This, together with option when I'd still burning through savings just on a slower rate is only sustainable when there are realistic prospects in future, like building a client base for a new business, developing IP you going to sell or transitioning to sustainable permanent position - something I know going to bring more income. Taking a low paying gig to wait for market/economy to "recover" or the interest rates to come down or some financial miracle to happen is just being stuck in the denial phase.

[hobnob]

As a variation on the theme, I got an email from Hays this morning, offering a 2 month contract at £18.51/hour (inside IR35), which is about £140/day. That's above minimum wage (£11.44/hour), but still pretty low by contracting standards!

Following up on this, Hays sent me another email today for a "Computer Engineer" role at £14.54/hour (inside IR35), i.e. about £110/day. Minimum wage is going up to £12.21/hour in April, so the gap is shrinking!

A few highlights of the job description:
* Security Clearance: Must have or be able to gain SC clearance.
* Nationality: UK National with a UK passport and Driving licence.
* Location: Mobile (Worcester, Gloucester, South West UK, South Wales).
* This mobile role requires a personal vehicle for travel throughout the region.
* Requirements:
** Willingness to travel extensively throughout the designated region
** Participate in an on-call rota if needed

I.e. they want someone to drive long distances in their own car and be on-call outside normal office hours. (They mention the mobile role 5 times and the on-call rota twice.) I hope that they let you claim mileage on expenses! They didn't say much about the actual IT work, but it sounds like desktop support.

This is a 10 month contract, so it's even less appealing than the previous one I mentioned (where 2 months might have been worth it to get SC clearance).

[SussexSeagull]

Following up on this, Hays sent me another email today for a "Computer Engineer" role at £14.54/hour (inside IR35), i.e. about £110/day. Minimum wage is going up to £12.21/hour in April, so the gap is shrinking!

A few highlights of the job description:
* Security Clearance: Must have or be able to gain SC clearance.
* Nationality: UK National with a UK passport and Driving licence.
* Location: Mobile (Worcester, Gloucester, South West UK, South Wales).
* This mobile role requires a personal vehicle for travel throughout the region.
* Requirements:
** Willingness to travel extensively throughout the designated region
** Participate in an on-call rota if needed

I.e. they want someone to drive long distances in their own car and be on-call outside normal office hours. (They mention the mobile role 5 times and the on-call rota twice.) I hope that they let you claim mileage on expenses! They didn't say much about the actual IT work, but it sounds like desktop support.

This is a 10 month contract, so it's even less appealing than the previous one I mentioned (where 2 months might have been worth it to get SC clearance).

I would argue paying someone that amount of money in a SC role is a security risk as it is hardly much of a financial incentive to resist being bribed for information.

[northernladuk]

I would argue paying someone that amount of money in a SC role is a security risk as it is hardly much of a financial incentive to resist being bribed for information.

True but my guess that is some kind of installation/decommissioning role. Going round remote sites, putting a bit of kit in, cabling and then taking the old kit away. You have to be SC just to step foot SC datacentres/sites. Doesn't mean you'll be seeing sensitive information. The kit could have been used then wiped but still need SC to enter site and transport. So a glorified delivery driver which would explain the list in description and the low rate.

[Snooky]

Following up on this, Hays sent me another email today for a "Computer Engineer" role at £14.54/hour (inside IR35), i.e. about £110/day. Minimum wage is going up to £12.21/hour in April, so the gap is shrinking!

And in a minimum wage employee role, your employer pays the ERNI; in a contract I believe it comes out of that £14.54. At 13.8% that's roughly £2.00ph, meaning that you'd be on the employee equivalent of £12.54, i.e. 43p above minimum wage.

I'd rather stack shelves in Tesco - no real stress or responsibility, no extensive travel, no on-call commitment.

[Yuri F]

And in a minimum wage employee role, your employer pays the ERNI; in a contract I believe it comes out of that £14.54. At 13.8% that's roughly £2.00ph, meaning that you'd be on the employee equivalent of £12.54, i.e. 43p above minimum wage.

I'd rather stack shelves in Tesco - no real stress or responsibility, no extensive travel, no on-call commitment.

I was also considering keeping myself busy in some physical work to help reduce exposure to potential IT-related occupational health hazards (e.g. sitting in a chair most of the day), like postman or something, but being introvert might not enjoy the idea communicating with strange and not always friendly people frustrated by late letter arrival (or whatever they're not happy in life about) which is probably specific to my densely populated area with lots of council housing. In IT it's probably hard (and question of providence lottery) to always keep on a top, inevitably ageing brings cognitive decline to majority of people and it gets slightly harder to keep the pace vs other market participants (leaving aside all other professional kick-start questions like traits/predisposition towards intellectual activity, natural gift, etc.).

[Dorkeaux]

I'd rather stack shelves in Tesco - no real stress or responsibility, no extensive travel, no on-call commitment.

Lots of people think getting a job at Tesco, Lidl, the Post Office etc is easy.
It's not really. Like any employer they are looking for certain skills, strengths and experiences that you probably don't have enough of if you are an ageing, grumpy ex-IT contractor who thinks they are slumming it.

As others on the forum have found, running a coffee van or being an Uber driver demand large cash outlays and masses of vetting and paperwork just to get started.

In particular. no one wants to invest the time to train someone that always has one eye on the door, waiting for the market for their "real" job to improve.
Hence the difficulty "stepping down" to a permie role.

I have a mate who was a university professor. He was given the role of axeman, charged with firing dozens of his colleagues at university that was trying to downsize it's payroll.

He did so, then was promptly sacked himself. No one would hire him, and after enourmous effort he managed to get a job stacking shelves in Sainsburys.
Being an educated man, he thought that he was a shoe-in for management training and put himself forward. Sainbo's thought differently. Still stacking shelves.

[jamesbrown]

Being an educated man, he thought that he was a shoe-in

Being an educated man, he probably knows it's shoo-in, so he can gloat about that while stacking shelves

[DodgyAccountant]

... like postman... might not enjoy the idea communicating with strange and not always friendly people...

I was a postman a long time ago, before getting into accounting / IT.
The customers were fine.
The other postmen were not.

[SussexSeagull]

I would love to get some hours somewhere to get some money in and relieve the boredom but I had my hip replaced before Christmas so would struggle to stack shelves, plus, as said elsewhere, the local Tesco would take one look and realise, correctly, I would be off when the next opportunity in IT appeared.