Barclays Capital weren't "forced" to do anything. If I felt "forced" to demand a 10% rise from a client two days before a major system implementation, that would be seen as greedy and unethical, and I would most likely not be renewed in future.

There's a knock on effect in pretty much everything right now. Compare the contract job market today with this time last year and one thing you notice (espeically in the north of england) is a severe lack of projects going on.

there's a few for helpdesks, and .net developers are in demand (as always) but 2nd line support, network administrators, project leaders all seem to be a bit barren. I've had to fall back on some support work while waiting fo the market to pick up, and it's getting cut throat up here right now. For each job, between 50 to 100 applications are being recieved according to one of my agency contacts.

Place I'm currently working at has had to postpone 2 large projects until next year due to budget restrictions. Mostly to do with the mounting fuel costs they now have to falk out to ship their product to customers.

One of the full time workers in the IT department is contemplating giving up his job because he can't afford to travel into work every day.

I personally have had to accept an hourly lower than I usually charge due to the fact that there's nothing out there right now and whatever I turn down, there'll be plenty to accept in my place.

The vulture for sucking the life blood out of our industry

THey could also do with raising the 40p/mile claim we can make on fuel costs, it been 40p/mile for years (10?) and I'm pretty sure fuel has fone up since then!

Paris - Because!

This is spot on. I recently abandoned contracting for just this reason. The credit crunch had no bearing on my decision at all. Labour have made it impossible to cover the risks inherent in contracting through their short-sighted and incompetent policies. I could no longer justify taking those risks with my family in mind.

There has long been a perception that contractors are coining it compared to permanent staff but this perception usually lies with those who have never tried to run their own business. I would expect a government to have a slightly clearer and more complete picture of the situation.

The icon? Labour are going to get badly burned at the next election.

The UK voted the Tories out because they were all f*cking their secretaries. The UK will hopefully vote the present Labour government out because they are all f*cking the country.

Labour want everyone to be 'employed' or a super-exec. They don't want such a thing as a one-man-band with his Limited company.

Its all a load of rubbish, if someone isn't getting fully employee benefits then they are not employees. They're paid more for the added risk of being on next to no notice and the time involved in finding new contracts during which time they earn nothing.

Somehow Nu Labia believe these people should be taxed like everyone else even though they don't get the same benefits like everyone else.

I've already lost my job due to New Lbour's new rules supposed to "protect" me.

The day the new "three months" rules came into effect, between my leaving work at 5.30 and getting home at 6.00, the client called the agency and said they did not want me back onsite the following day.

I was TWO DAYS short of the three months.

Thanks for nothing, Mr Brown.

Without 'freelance' contractors, most engineering industries would just collapse.

Uncle Gordon has been hell-bent on making working as a freelancer so bloody hard, not just IR35, but the recent MSC changes as well. We must have the most convoluted tax system in the western world. Every time they identify a 'loophole' created by all the complexities, rather then try and simplify the loophole out of existence, they make thing even more bloody complicated.

Let's not even get onto the subject of the Child Tax Credits system. I'm STILL taking medication for the stress around that one <twitch,twitch>.

I'm not sure the Tories will reverse things either.

And they wonder why there's a shortage of people in engineering disciplines in this country?

Paraphrasing the late, great Douglas Adams:

'So why did we lose the election, I'm sure there was good reason?"

"You're a bunch of useless, bloody morons!!"

"Oh yes! That was it. Oh well, just got time for another bath."

"One of the full time workers in the IT department is contemplating giving up his job because he can't afford to travel into work every day."

I am thinking of taking 6 months gardening leave myself, as I don't get mileage to site anymore & the cost of fuel has gone up making my current contract untenable.

Master Kantractor: Quickly as you can, snatch the wages from my hand.

Young C(h)aincellor tries to do so and fails

Master Kantractor: When you can take the wages from my hand, it will be time for me to leave.

With apologies to Kung Fu, I'll get me Shaolin monks robes.

A comment from the Tories would have made this story more worthwhile. Finding out what, if anything, they would do to improve things would be genuine and useful news. As it stands this story is merely reinforcing what we all know. Vulture for stating the bleedin' obvious.

With the disgruntled contractors.

In the last couple of years things have become mental on the accounting side of things, to the degree that on the wages I am on, it's just not worth bothering with it given the complication and complete lack of any kind of rights as a member of staff - you are expected to behave exactly like every other permanent staffer, but with none of the perks, like, say, any kind of job security.

However, much as though I try to find permy work, no-one wants permy IT staff at my level [desktop/network support]. You contract, or you die in my field, basically.

I got the 'don't turn up tomorrow' thing back in February for a job I was doing [and i still haven't been told why] and the market is so piss poor right now that it took me a month to find another contract - and I do desktop/network support and rollouts, the bread and butter of IT contracting.

At this rate I'd be better off in terms of stress and finances just fucking off the whole IT thing and retraining as a plumber - at least then I could operate as a sole trader, not have reams of paperwork to deal with [with no guarantee that HMRC won't come knocking in five years time after changing the rules again demanding large wads of cash], and make an hourly rate that would actually pay the bills from month to month...which the current work really isn't.

Anon as my employers read this...

The easy way to fix the tilted job market would have been to abolish the National Insurance, which is nothing more than a tax on regular employment (obviously other tax rates would have to be raised to compensate).

But a Labour gov. would and could never do that.

Paris because she loves hourly rates.

What is the 3 month rule that you mention in you post A.C.?

All you contractors out there. You are paid more than permies to cover the risk that you are unemployed for a brief period of time and if you are any good, it will only be a brief period of time (if you are not any good, then get out of contracting !)

As for all the risk, and talk of being small business people, having been a corporate drone, a contractor and also having had my own small business, I can tell you that there is no comparason. People who start their own small business put their capital (and often their house) on the line to start the business, they don't just don't just hop from their permanent post to a contract and then moan because it takes a little while before the cash rolls in. They take real risks, usually with a view to building a business that will employ other people, and so deserve the support of government.

They passed legislation (IR35) that says you have to rewrite a perfectly good contract so that there is a possibility of making a loss and you can't claim expenses in order to not be an employee of the customer. Who the heck is going to vote for someone that stupid to run a country.

Actually, I take that back. It's the only way this government could deliver an IT project on budget. Also, most politicians are lawyers. They are just lining up business (rewriting perfectly good contracts) for when they get thrown out.

>Bring on the flat tax rate

Oh dear gods, no. Please spend a little time with a calculator before posting stupid comments like that. To match the current personal tax burden (which is now nearly as high as it was under Thatcher), you will need a flat tax rate of probably 40% or more.

Yes, you'll get more out of contractors (breifly), but 40% on the poorest (i.e. those working on a low wage, but not on benefits) simply is not fair. It'll also drive a significant proportion of the middle income down into poverty, and drive out most of your contractor base (all the ones here are looking to either emigrate, go permanent in a different field or retire), and as the UK has a service based economy primarily driven by the middle-income people, contractors and the self-employed, you'd rapidly destroy what economic foundation you have left.

On the other hand, the core of the argument is spot on - if you simplify the tax system, you can make a huge amount of savings (less tax men, less fraud, less stress). The simplest thing to do as a start - personal allowance is pegged at (say) 3/4 of last years "average income" and abolish NI and CGT, merging them with income tax, which retains some form of banding as it does now. Allow self-employed companies to retain "loss of employment" funds, untaxed, in the company so that they can continue to pay themselves when they hit circumstances where employees have protection.

Above all, look at shifting taxation away from the individual, and onto resources instead - make us pay for not being "green", do it proportionately (e.g. tax air fuel at the same rate as cars, which will allow a huge cut in the price of petrol/diesel), and reward us with freedom and lower tax bills.

Paris, because she's doing a better job for contractors than Labour is.

40p a mile? That's a luxury...

I get the absolute basic, 10p a mile. I just thank my lucky stars that I'm an employee. I was a contractor a couple of years back but I found the time between getting contracts was just too long to support my family.

I really do feel for some of these IT Contractors though, it was cut throat enough a couple of years back, must be really bad now.

Rob

God forbid I should actually comment on the substance of your article, but the original Saatchi and Saatchi slogan was "Labour's not working", which is a much better double entendre.

PH, because she once asked me for a double entendre. So I gave her one.

NuLabour: How Much do you earn?

NuLabour: Give it to us.

... I love them when they're angry - which seems to be most of the time regardless of the economic / political climate.

ROFL

I really don't know why people get so up-tight about money and tax. After all, if you think about it, unless all you do is stash money away and count it, it all goes back to the government in some way or other - all you do by earning and spending it is assist it's progress. It is, after all, the government's money, not yours.

Try finding some other interest in life other than amassing wealth and possessions - you never know, you night even be happy.

When I was contracting I saw no point in trying to simultaneously do my already busy job and take on the frustrating task of trying to train my cheaper and much less capable replacement, knowing they would cock things up and place the blame on me as I would not be there to prove otherwise.

The line I used to take was that I would have to document the hand-over, as a chargeable consultancy item that was not already specifically identified in the contract, and that hand-over could only be to a suitably qualified person who could prove they had the same or better tech qualifications than me; otherwise it would be professional training, which I was not contracted to do. Also, I used to keep a day diary to show what problems had been tackled and would say "let's pick an example and see how well they they deal with real issues".

Documenting this would only sometimes make the contract last a bit longer, but it covered me and raised the blood pressure of those trying to take advantage by doing things on the cheap. Those employers wanting to do things properly could understand my rationale.

Basically I try to adopt the attitude of a contractor I met a long time ago when I was first a permie; he said "I don't suffer from stress, I'm just a carrier'.

"I could be getting a little paranoid, but I'm becoming more and more suspicious that Brown wants to completely destroy the English economy and that is why he let the Scots parliament have control over Scottish taxes, and insists on sending so much English money up there as well."

1. The Scottish Parliament doesn't have any control over income tax or NI, in fact there are no tax varying powers at all.

2. WTF? You know for years Scotland voted out the Tories who ripped the heart out of Scottish Industry and didn't bother to replace it with anything other than low imagination screw-driver assembly line work. Meanwhile we shelled out our taxes to rebuild the M25 for the umteenth time and generally stoke the overheated coals of the SE England economy with not much in return other than dole cheques. So you big english softy yer damn right we want some of that money back so we can rebuild our country after years of Westminster guided mismanagement and neglect. Jeez.

Paris, 'cos she'd know how to treat a Scotsman properly.

My heart bleeds for the tax-dodging bastards.

While there are a few competent contractors, most of the freelance workers I have had the misfortune of dealing with are only freelancers because they are too lazy to do manual labour and too fucking stupid to get and keep any other proper job.

Paris, because she's thick as pigshit.

On yer Tebbity bikes, then! Maybe a career in coal mining, shipbuilding, the motor industry or steel awaits?

I do have many other interests beside amassing wealth and possessions. I'm addicted to sleeping inside which means I have to pay rent and I can't get through a day without eating food. Ridiculous I know.

Maybe it's not that bad but shouldn't having high qualifications in an industry that is now vital to the worlds economy and communications mean I can achieve these 'eat and have home' dreams without working more hours than the guy in the local hand car wash?

I mean no dis-respect to these valeting auto mobile professionals. Watching the speed with which they turnaround a gold standard wash wax and boot is no less impressive than an F1 pit-crew. However, It did make me question whether the degree was worth it.

This one, because I'm questioning the meaning of IT.

Greetings form o'er the pond.

Not really 110% relavant here, but close enough. I'm from Canada (eh?) and the market sucks here for I/T workers. I worked for Dell computers, who just 2 years ago, opened a shiny new location in the "Silicon Valley of Canada" and even started building a second building - things looked great. I got a call a few months back.. they were closing the site, and wanted me in the next day to return all my Dell owned equipment. Done, and over in a day. I admit, being a perm I got severance pay, and it was pretty decent too.. But it's going on 2 months now, and I'm still looking. I spent this week up on a roof top ripping old shingles down. I'm spending next week spraying ashphalt driveway sealer, and sweeping dirt off the laneways. After that, I MAY have a tech support contract, but dont; knwo for sure.

As for the taxes.... Let's not even go there. The I/T sector here is cut throat at best and having to deal with the federal, provincial, and municipal beancounters, to pay the taxes to run the country in to the ground.. well "That's all I have to say about that."

Mine's the one that's a few years out of style, with rips in the pockets, cause I can't afford a newer one.