Tag Archive for small business commissioner

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Liz Barclay answers your questions about late payment

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By Small Business Team on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Join Small Business Commissioner Liz Barclay for our next Twitter Q&A this Thursday, September 9 between 4pm and 5pm GMT. Liz will answer your questions about poor payment practices affecting your business.

Former campaigning journalist and BBC broadcaster Liz Barclay a long history of campaigning for social justice when it comes to consumer rights and personal finance.

What can I do to speed up invoices being paid?What if it’s a large company who’s my sole customer?What steps can I take without going to court?How can the Small Business Commissioner help me and my firm?

Late payment putting British SMEs out of business

The Federation of Small Businesses estimates that 50,000 SMEs are forced out of business each year because of late paymentSmall business are currently chasing more than £50bn of late paymentsThe average UK SME is chasing five outstanding invoices at any one time, using up an astonishing 1.5 hours a day, with an average of £8,500 owedThe Government’s own figures are that £23.4bn is owed in outstanding invoices to UK businesses

To join in, just follow @smallbusinessuk and get involved by tweeting your question with the hashtag #AskSBCommissioner.

Remember,

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Hot Business News Today

Liz Barclay answers your questions about late payment

by  •  • 0 Comments

By Small Business Team on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Join Small Business Commissioner Liz Barclay for our next Twitter Q&A this Thursday, September 9 between 4pm and 5pm GMT. Liz will answer your questions about poor payment practices affecting your business.

Former campaigning journalist and BBC broadcaster Liz Barclay a long history of campaigning for social justice when it comes to consumer rights and personal finance.

What can I do to speed up invoices being paid?What if it’s a large company who’s my sole customer?What steps can I take without going to court?How can the Small Business Commissioner help me and my firm?

Late payment putting British SMEs out of business

The Federation of Small Businesses estimates that 50,000 SMEs are forced out of business each year because of late paymentSmall business are currently chasing more than £50bn of late paymentsThe average UK SME is chasing five outstanding invoices at any one time, using up an astonishing 1.5 hours a day, with an average of £8,500 owedThe Government’s own figures are that £23.4bn is owed in outstanding invoices to UK businesses

To join in, just follow @smallbusinessuk and get involved by tweeting your question with the hashtag #AskSBCommissioner.

Remember,

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Hot Business News Today

BBC journalist Liz Barclay appointed small business commissioner

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
UPDATED: Campaigning journalist and BBC broadcaster Liz Barclay has been appointed the new small business commissioner, due to take up the role on June 23.
Liz Barclay has a long history of campaigning for social justice when it comes to consumer rights and personal finance. She has presented Radio 4 consumer affairs programme You and Yours.
The small business commissioner post was established in 2016 to help small businesses get paid on time.
Barclay will take over from interim commissioner Philip King just as the office is expected to be given greater powers.
Last year, the government consulted on new powers for the commissioner, including the power to order payments, levy fines and open investigations based on third-party information. The responses to the consultation and further proposals have yet to be published.
Small business are currently chasing more than £50bn of late payments, according to digital banking platform Tide. The average UK SME is chasing five outstanding invoices at any one time, using up an astonishing 1.5 hours a day, with an average of £8,500 owed.
The government’s own figures are that £23.4bn is owed in outstanding invoices to British businesses.
In August 2019, a quarter of SMEs told chartered

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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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Small businesses spend hour and a half each day chasing late payments

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small business are currently chasing more than £50bn of late payments, according to research.
Digital banking platform Tide revealed that the average UK SME is chasing five outstanding invoices at any one time, using up an astonishing 1.5 hours a day, with an average of £8,500 being owed.
If you are self-employed and working alone, you have an average of four outstanding invoices at any one time, amounting to almost £1,000.
And businesses with anything between 10 and 50 employees have an average of eight invoices outstanding, racking up £13,000 being owed on average.
Businesses in London have the toughest time in terms of late payments, with SMEs in the capital having an average of seven invoices outstanding, spending over two hours a day chasing.
London is closely followed by Scotland, with businesses there having an average of six unpaid invoices, eating up an hour and a quarter each day chasing.
The South West has the easiest time of it, with businesses there waiting on just three invoices to be paid.
Getting worse
The late payments crisis appears to be getting worse with a quarter of SMEs reporting things are worse than a year ago. Although the government pledged to clamp

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Ex-small business commissioner blames Whitehall for pushing him out

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Paul Uppal, the ex-small business commissioner, has blamed Whitehall for pushing him out of a role which, he says, is under-resourced and ignored by government.
Uppal, who was appointed late payment watchdog in 2016, has told The Times that his office was met with  “radio silence” from civil servants and ministers over his approach to the job and that his budget was too small to tackle the “huge task” of getting big companies to pay small businesses on time.
>See also: Small Business Commissioner Q&A: Paul Uppal talks about late payments
The former late payment tzar left in October after a disagreement over an alleged conflict of interest related to an unpaid, interim advisory role in another government-backed small business scheme.
Uppal expressed his “shock” and “hurt” at how the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy handled the issue.
Chancellor Sajid Javid said last week that a successor to Uppal would be found quickly and that the role would be given more teeth.
>See also: How to tackle late payments to your small business
Uppal says that his successor would need more financial and strategic support from government. His last face-to-face meeting with a Whitehall official was back in

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Large businesses could be fined for failing to pay SMEs on time

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Large businesses could be fined for failing to pay small and medium-sized business suppliers on time, as part of a Government crackdown on SME late payments.
The move will see entire company boards held responsible for supply chain payment practices, and not just finance directors, as previously mooted.
The Government has also announced a new £1m fund to to encourage businesses to use technology to simplify invoicing, payment and credit management.
And the Small Business Commissioner could have beefed-up powers to tackle SME late payments and binding payment plans.
SME late payments result in the closure of more than 50,000 small businesses each year, according to the Federation of Small Businesses, costing the economy £2.5 billion. On average, small businesses are owed £80,000 apiece. In 2018, Britain’s small businesses collectively spent £6.7bn just to collect money they were already owed – a huge drain on investment.
From now on, company boards will be held accountable for payment practices to small businesses within their companies in a drive to increase transparency and accountability on late payments. Measures will force audit committees to report payment practices in company annual reports.
The Small Business Commissioner will also assume responsibility for the voluntary

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Small Business Commissioner claws back £3.1m over last 6 months

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The Small Business Commissioner has clawed back £3.1 million in late payments owed to small businesses by large companies within the last six months. According to new research from Funding Options, this compares to just £380,000 repaid in the previous six months. Government launched the Small Business Commissioner in December 2017 to help small companies

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Small Business Commissioner Q&A: Paul Uppal talks about late payments

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Before becoming the Small Business Commissioner, Paul Uppal used to run his own construction business. He knows all too well how detrimental late payments can be to a small business, having run a company in a sector where the practice is rife. We catch up with him to find out more about his and what
The post Small Business Commissioner Q&A: Paul Uppal talks about late payments appeared first on Small Business.

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Insolvency: government initiatives have failed small businesses

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Insolvency is making an unwelcome return to the headlines. The number of individuals who were declared insolvent last year reached its highest level since the aftermath of the financial crisis. According to the Insolvency Service, 99,196 people in England & Wales were declared insolvent in 2017 – up by 9.4 per cent on the year
The post Insolvency: government initiatives have failed small businesses appeared first on Small Business.

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