Staying in the same public sector contract after April 2017

[northernladuk]

Case Study:
A PS contractor who has 5 years in same PS contract want to continue in same PS contract after Apr 17 changes. He wants to avoid or atleast minimize retro investigation possibility but at the same time cannot afford losing job just right now. He is not the best brains who can go and get the next contract easily. He can though afford extra taxes and reduced income for some time to atleast keep afloat and plan for the next move ideally by leaving comfort zone upskilling and adjusting to competitive contractor market.

whats the best option with least possibility of retro inspection ?

Take a short term hit, leave the PS and go permie, learn skills, come back on decent rates.

The fact you are contracting with the risk of not being able to get a gig by hiding in the PS is not the best place to be in. Best time to fix that is now... I'd argue 5 years puts you slap bang on HMRC's radar under the old rules let alone the new ones. Time to cut lose and put it behind you I'd say. You are exactly what HMRC is after.

Contracts end, it's what we do. Looks to me like you've all your eggs in one basket and are just avoiding the inevitable which is going to hit you pretty hard. A very tenuous position to be in.

How come you don't have enough money behind you to be able to swap to permie after 5 years either? You should have a warchest to last a couple of years at least.

[seeourbee]

Case Study:
A PS contractor who has 5 years in same PS contract

Don't you mean "employee" ?!

[northernladuk]

Don't you mean "employee" ?!

[puzzler]

Take a short term hit, leave the PS and go permie, learn skills, come back on decent rates.

The fact you are contracting with the risk of not being able to get a gig by hiding in the PS is not the best place to be in. Best time to fix that is now... I'd argue 5 years puts you slap bang on HMRC's radar under the old rules let alone the new ones. Time to cut lose and put it behind you I'd say. You are exactly what HMRC is after.

Contracts end, it's what we do. Looks to me like you've all your eggs in one basket and are just avoiding the inevitable which is going to hit you pretty hard. A very tenuous position to be in.

How come you don't have enough money behind you to be able to swap to permie after 5 years either? You should have a warchest to last a couple of years at least.

go permie ? you mean in same PS organisation ?

fully invested, so warchest cannot be readily available which is really unfortunate cuz never saw this coming !!

[NHS1979]

No passive hate for the PS. I've just left after 2 years myself. My irk is with the contractors that see themselves as nice and safe in PS gigs and quite happy to live their lives out as pseudo employees in it. All of a sudden some legislation comes along and it all changes. Decent contractors leave and carry on delivering services to clients as contractors do. Those PS lifers thrash around like stranded fish trying to do everything the possibly can to stay in the PS. You've had the gumption to get involved and understand which puts you above many many others but there are options outside the PS and these just doesn't seem to be an option for many coming on here recently. I know how I sound but I'm quite happy to keep banging the drum. I'm not the only one. See the post a few above this. Eek has been saying the same for many many months now. Someone, somewhere may listen, leave look back, and realize we were right.

I do understand, and apologies if I came across harshly.

I have worked in the private sector as both a contractor outside IR35 and PAYE. I stopped because I don't drive and national travel was affecting my health and family life. That's the main reason I wouldn't switch to private sector.

So of the 5 options set out by a previous poster, option 1 is an offer I've received - I'm minded to say no for various reasons, but mainly because I perceive there's an 'Option 6' - I.e. Leave the current gig and move to a different ps organisation doing a different gig. Trying to gauge whether option 1 or option 6 is best for people with limited options, in respect of mitigating the retrospective threat, is the dilemma I have 2 weeks to 'thrash out'

[malvolio]

As an aside the BBC (and other media companies in the same position) is a bad example for the threat of retrospection. The point there is that staff were coming in via PSCs while doing routine, long-running engagements exclusively for the BBC on the basis that they did some external work such as after dinner speaking and fete opening for which they needed their PSC. HMRC are contending that the latter bit is fine but that they were employees in all but name for the former, therefore they should have been paid through PAYE all along. The existence of the PSC itself was not the driver for the investigation: plenty of MPs have them for exactly the same reasons, after all.

I also maintain that it is not the worker that should have been hit but the BBC. Like the original SLC case, they were the ones avoiding the correct taxation, not the worker. More to the point there was a mass lay-off of BBC and other employees about ten years back, almost all of whom have gone back as freelances through a host of small production companies. That wasn't their decision...

[psychocandy]

Case Study:
A PS contractor who has 5 years in same PS contract want to continue in same PS contract after Apr 17 changes. He wants to avoid or atleast minimize retro investigation possibility but at the same time cannot afford losing job just right now. He is not the best brains who can go and get the next contract easily. He can though afford extra taxes and reduced income for some time to atleast keep afloat and plan for the next move ideally by leaving comfort zone upskilling and adjusting to competitive contractor market.

whats the best option with least possibility of retro inspection ?

There is no option. If you continue into April (possibly march depends on payment terms) you leave yourself wide open if things go badly.

[psychocandy]

go permie ? you mean in same PS organisation ?

fully invested, so warchest cannot be readily available which is really unfortunate cuz never saw this coming !!

ALL of it ????

[northernladuk]

go permie ? you mean in same PS organisation ?

Hell no. You aren't getting me are you....

fully invested, so warchest cannot be readily available which is really unfortunate cuz never saw this coming !!

This just get's worse. Isn't that the whole point of a warchest????

[SueEllen]

I do understand, and apologies if I came across harshly.

I have worked in the private sector as both a contractor outside IR35 and PAYE. I stopped because I don't drive and national travel was affecting my health and family life. That's the main reason I wouldn't switch to private sector.

Working for the private sector if you choose your clients carefully can mean a lot of work from home. The hours with certain clients aren't longer either.

Also unless you have a medical reason why you can't drive then you should learn. Even if it takes you a couple of years to pass your test, it's useful life skill to have.

So go permie. Get some more skills including life ones then come back to contracting.