The committee, led by the Labour MP Frank Field, criticised such arguments as fiction. It also highlighted that forcing people into self-employment as couriers, taxi drivers and other roles, rather than taking them on as employees, was depriving the state of badly needed tax revenues and creating an extra burden on the welfare system.
“…creating an extra burden on the welfare system.”
“…which is a really, really bad thing (when we aren’t talking about unrestricted immigration, of course).”
Politicians create the environment and then complain about how people adapt to it.
Let’s take the very first sentence:
“Companies in Britain’s growing gig economy are forcing workers into bogus self-employment and free-riding on the welfare state,”
Frank Field and others have called for universal rather thaneans-tested benefits; they are right to. Spud has latched on to the Universal Basic Income.bandwagon; which has a great logic behind it. However, when it’s a nasty corporate, boo hiss, well then that’s free riding on the welfare state.
FFS
Can’t have people working for themselves. A slave needs a massa.
“The report comes ahead of the government’s Taylor review of modern working practices, which is likely to recommend that self-employed gig economy workers should be granted greater protections and benefits.”
Great, so more software work going to India then. Thanks, motherfuckers.
The argument seems to miss the point that the self-employed also pay taxes.
“forcing people into self-employment”: there should be a prize for that rare event, “force” being used in a literal sense in the meedja.
Re tax differentials, agreed, but – the self employed (once you’ve included NI ers and ees for employees) generally pay a lower overall rate of tax.
A simpler solution is to “simplify” (Mufr doesn’t like this) tax, for example, one could merge NI ees and income tax. And / or whatever else that reduces the differential to “reasonable”.
The report does suggest: “The incoming government should set out a roadmap for equalising employee and self-employed national insurance contributions”
Which takes us back to simplification? What the Boy George promised to do, and spectacularly failed to deliver? I shan’t be holding my breath…
Out of interest, have there ever been anything other than self employed taxi drivers? Black cab drivers I’ve known have all been, far as I’m aware. And the usual minicab form is they pay a percentage to the cab co (balanced by the cab co paying them for account trips) & do their own tax & NI.
Most doctors and solicitors are self-employed unless a group forms a partnership. All elected members are self-employed in law. Are they proposing to make MPs employees of the government? And presumably, fireable by that employer?
@jgh
A partner is for UK tax purposes treated as self-employed in their own trade.