Monthly Archives: January 2021

Hot Business News Today

Big companies must pay small business suppliers within 30 days

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Large companies will have to settle 95 per cent of invoices from small business suppliers within 30 days from July 1, halving the late-payment window.
The government has cracked down on large companies that take too long to pay invoices in order to ease cash flow problems for thousands of smaller businesses.
Despite almost 3,000 companies signing the Prompt Payment Code poor payment practices are still rife, with many payments delayed well beyond the current 60-day target required for 95 per cent of invoices.
>See also: Small businesses spend hour and a half each day chasing late payments
Currently, £23.4bn worth of late invoices are owed to firms across Britain, impacting on businesses’ cash flow and ultimate survival.
Company directors, chief executives and finance directors will be required to personally sign the code to ensure responsibility for payment practices is taken at the highest level of an organisation.
Bosses will also have to acknowledge suppliers can charge interest on late invoices, and the code – overseen by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner on behalf of the business department – has allowed breaches to be investigated based on third-party information.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, told The Times that

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Hot Business News Today

Thousands of self-employed mothers miss out on COVID-19 SEISS payments

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Tens of thousands of self-employed mothers who have recently had children have lost out on Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) payments.
The payments come in instalments based on a self-employed person‘s average profits between 2016 and 2019.
An estimated 75,000 self-employed women took maternity leave during that period, meaning that they may not have been paid what they would have otherwise.
On Thursday (January 21), charity Pregnant Then Screwed will be bringing a judicial review for indirect discrimination. They want the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to take maternity leave into account when making SEISS payments.
When asked why pay-outs for self-employed mothers was lower, the chancellor said ‘for all sorts of reasons people have ups and down and variations in their earnings, whether through maternity, ill health or others’. Pregnant Then Screwed wrote a pre-action protocol letter to the chancellor and his legal team ‘correlated maternity leave with a sabbatical’, according to the charity.
Joeli Brearley, CEO and founder of Pregnant Then Screwed explains: “The government has had nine months to amend this scheme so that it doesn’t discriminate against women; but they have chosen not to.
“We’ve had heart-breaking messages from so many women. For some this drop in

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