Self Employed And Not Been Paid? – Expert Advice and Tips

Self Employed And Not Been Paid

Self employed and not been paid is an ongoing issue in the UK. Working as a freelancer or independent worker can be challenging at the best of times, but when you’re hit with late-paying clients this can make being self employed a lot harder.

Late payment is an extremely common challenge for freelance workers in the UK. It has been shown that 50% of those workers don’t get paid on time or at all.

Have you recently undertaken a job and are you thinking to yourself “I am self employed and not been paid?” If so, you need to act. Being self employed and not been paid can be challenging.

It can be an extremely stressful and uncomfortable situation, especially as there is no current employment legislation to assist in this situation.

Getting paid is vital when you work as a self employed contractor or freelancer, and when you don’t get paid it is essential that you know how to react.

However, do NOT worry as there are ways in which we can help to ensure the process of recovery is easy and stress-free. Self employed and not been paid can be a problem that is sorted quickly.

How To get Self Employed invoices paid

If you’re in the position of being self employed and not been paid, collecting unpaid invoices can be tough, especially if it’s your first time having to deal with this.

A pivotal point of driving your business’s success and durability is to maintain healthy cash flow, so tackling late payers is essential to maintaining a healthy work-life.

We asked our expert debt collection officers at Federal Management to help us put together 5 key points as to how you can collect unpaid invoices effectively and professionally:

1. Breathe

After working hard on a job only to then be met with a customer that hasn’t paid on time can be extremely taxing on both your mental health and on your business.

You have every right to feel stressed and upset if you’re self employed and not been paid. However, before assuming that the client is refusing to pay we suggest you wait a few days before sending a polite reminder.

Acting irrationally at first and getting angry may result in no further business from the client.

2. Ensure Payment Terms Are Discussed And Confirmed Early On

In commercial businesses it’s common practice to set out an invoice period before any works or services are carried out. These are usually on 30, 60, or 90-day payment terms.

It’s recommended that measures such as these are put in place for self employed contractors or freelancers to ensure payment. This can help prevent self employed and not been paid situations.

These measures should ideally be written down, and will include:

• Discussing when you will invoice the client.
  • What the payment terms will be.
  • Is there to be a deposit paid before the works go ahead.
  • You may also want to include late payment charges onto your terms.

Enforcing these parameters before taking on a job will hopefully reduce the number of times, that your client doesn’t pay on time. Self employed and not been paid should be acted upon quickly.

3. Get Something In Writing

It’s recommended by experts that you get something in writing (i.e. a contract) to protect yourself in advance – if things take a turn for the worse once a job has been completed, it may be difficult to recover a payment without proof.

A contract is a legally binding document and will detail all the work that is to be carried out and how much is to be paid and when. These extra precautions may take a lot of time to produce in the short term, but they will save you thousands of pounds in the long term.

If you are a construction worker, there are associations such as The Federation of Master Builders that can provide access to contract templates. These templates can help self employed contractors with the services that they provide.

4. Communicate With The Client

As the person that carried out the work for the client, you have every right to contact them in any way possible to retrieve your unpaid invoices.

This can be done in a few ways:

• Politely calling the client to chase for payment.
  • Sending them a letter before action or late payment email reminder to highlight their late invoice.
  • A statement of outstanding cost – this should be sent if the first two methods of communication fail to provide any form of payment forthcoming.

5. Instruct A Debt Collection Agency To Recover Your Owed Monies

If the customer is refusing to pay, then it’s wise to contact Federal Management, who specialise in providing a Debt Collection Recovery services. Every day, we recover thousands of pounds for self employed contractors like yourself.

Personal Debt Collection is one of Federal Management’s biggest services and we have a team of industry-leading debt collection officers.

Our strategy is a Professional, pragmatic, and persistent. We pride ourselves on this, along with pioneering practices and procedures which continue to set the standard for debt collection agencies in the UK.

Our objective is to maximise the potential of the successful recovery of unpaid monies.

We ensure that we deliver the best service to our clients by delivering market-leading results every year with:

• UK’s Lowest Commission rates from 6%.
• Up to 90% Recovery rate on undisputed debts.
• Low fixed cost debt recovery service.
• No collection means no collection costs to pay.

It’s extremely vital that you choose the right agency for your debt recovery, as choosing the wrong one may lead to burnt bridges in future relationships with your clients.

Our professional debt collection officers are highly specialised in the field and can recover the debt in the most expedient manner. This will leave you to focus on valued tasks such as continuing to grow your business.

For advice or help on how we can recover your unpaid invoices, get in contact with us on 0333 043 4425 or email us at enquiries@federalmanagement.co.uk

Common FAQ –  Self Employed Work done not getting paid UK

Not getting paid for work I have done UK?

You have took the first step in the right direction to fixing the problem. It is an all too common issue right now in the UK. Not getting paid for work I have done is something we hear every day.  The following information should help.

Is there anything I can do myself to get paid?

You can send a letter before action or email a final reminder. This can sometimes prompt the contracting party into paying. It is also worth trying to call them or text them if appropriate. There maybe a valid reason why they have not paid.

What if they ignore my letter before action?

Normally, a seven day deadline is set within a letter before action. If this is ignored without justification as to why, it is probably the best time to speak to a Professional third party who is highly experienced in dealing with these matters such as Federal Management.

Will I need a CCJ to get paid as I hear it is expensive?

Absolutely not. On average, less than 1% of the cases we deal with require legal action to recover unpaid monies owing to our self-employed clients. In the event of extreme resistance, we can assist with the Legal process however it this not a common occurrence. The Court costs can usually be claimed back regardless in the event of a successful claim.

The customer is making up false excuses not to pay

Our Collections Teams have hundreds of years of combined experience in dealing with these matters. We have heard all types of late payment excuses and we are well equipped to deal with spurious excuses for non payment.

Customer is refusing to pay and refusing to discuss payment

If tensions have built up during dialogue with the customer, professional third party intervention will help any situation. We can act as mediators to find a resolution.

Will using a Debt Collection Agency harm my reputation

Federal Management are an Award winning FCA regulated Debt Collection Agency that are highly accredited. Our services are used by Law firms such is the level of professionalism we have and we recover millions of pounds every year.

Do not risk working with rogue outfits or cowboy debt collection companies. If you are self employed and not been paid, work with professionals only. Anything else can make the matter worse.

We are on of the UK’s longest running and most successful Debt Collection Agencies. All instructions are dealt with in a business like manner. Best rest assured that your case will be dealt with by highly experienced professionals.

Posted on May 22, 2023