Each week Mortgage Solutions and its sister title Specialist Lending Solutions looks back at the week's most thoughtful, thought provoking and controversial comments to single out the Star Letter.
This week’s Star Letter goes to Mark for his comments on Spring Budget ‘17: Tumbleweeds for the property market
Spring Budget ‘17: Tumbleweeds for the property market
Mark – 1 hour ago. 10.03.2017
As a self employed person, I do not get sick pay, holiday pay nor can I sign on. I also work 15 hours a day and work every weekend getting paperwork up to date. So, where is the parity with the employed?
I want to be employed, but most surveyors these days have to work on a consultancy basis, which means you have to be self-employed. We have to supply all our own equipment, including car, so it costs a fortune before you get any jobs. My gross for February was £1,000. If I was employed on a salary, like the old days, I would have been paid £5,000 salary plus they would have provided a car and other benefits, and the most important thing is that I would have stopped work at 5-30pm!
So why don’t the government force these large valuation companies to employ us, as technically we do not fulfill the requirements of being “self-employed” as laid down by HMRC.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
