Almost two-thirds of UK freelancers fear the economy’s negative impact on their mode of working will get worse, dashing hopes that their recovery might be imminent.
When asked about the prospects for freelancing, just 15 per cent said they would improve, while the remainder said they would deteriorate or stay the same.
Freelancers’ outlook for the UK economy is slightly brighter, however, with almost a fifth predicting it will pick up, compared with 52 per cent expecting it will decline.
Overall, then, freelancers are “relatively pessimistic about the progression of the current economic crisis and its impact on their profession,” said the Professional Contractors Group.
Based on its members’ survey in May, the group’s findings show that the respondents were marginally less pessimistic about their own situation than freelancing as a whole.
Meanwhile, nine in every 10 of the respondents said they were more likely to vote for a political party in the next general election purely on the basis that it proposed to abolish IR35.
HM Revenue & Customs, which enforces the tax rule, struck a negative chord with almost 70 per cent of the freelancers, who said the taxman was slow at dealing with their requests or wasted their time.
Jul 3, 2009
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