[matty72]

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300336u

[deeege]

I've just checked for Universal Credit and I feel bloody stupid for saving some money. We should have spent it all then we'd be eligible.

Same as me. Means tested I’d get diddly squat if it’s done through universal credit.

Punished for being self employed and then double punished for basically saving money my whole life.

[davids3511]

It won't surprise me if/when the UK numbers of CV continue to rise exponentially - reaching Italian proportions - then window cleaning will be seen as non-essential work and closed down.

If the government doesn't "ban it" then by the end of March social pressure will cause many cancellations.

Even though we know we can easily minimise contact - just imagine all the elderly and vulnerable, the parents of kids and the workers at home seeing us swanning around in our vans washing windows when they can hardly take bonzo for a crap in the park.

That’s exactly how i see it going. I don’t have a massive domestic round anyway but I hated doing them last week with most people working from home. Next week will be even worse with all the kids being off and it will get progressively worse from now on.

Luckily I’ve got a full week of commercial that I can do next week else I’m not sure I’d have done my domestics. I’m just not hard faced enough to have the ‘carry on regardless’ attitude whilst all around me is falling to bits.

Not having a go,  I think you talk a lot of sense but you are no different just because you're doing commercial. Cant see how that makes you less 'hard faced'. You are carrying on as normal.

I think you’ve misunderstood me mate. I mean ‘hard faced’ as in I struggled last week turning up to do domestics with people obviously worried in their homes. Questioning myself constantly whether I’m doing the right thing being there or not.

The commercial I have booked in for this week I wouldn’t really have that guilt (it’s a full week on site,  no customers to deal with)

I’ll be honest, ive found the last couple of days really tough (as have most of us) and I’m not sure I’ll get any work done even if we are allowed too.

I really think it’s going to get far far worse in the UK than anything we’ve seen in Italy and China yet and the thought of needing ventilators and not being able to get them absolutely terrifies me.

I’ve suffered with Asthma my whole life and whilst it’s a lot better now than it was when I was a kid, I spent many nights/weeks in hospital hooked up to nebulisers with breathing aids and believe me it’s a lot worse than you can ever imagine.

Sorry for the rant but my point is I’m not saying you shouldn’t do domestics. Whilst the guidelines are allowing you to go to work then go for it, just that I can’t really bring myself to do it at the moment.

I'm feeling exactly as you described, not sure what the right thing to do is and was maybe a bit oversensitive to 'hard faced'.  Hope you keep well, its going to be a hard year.

[davids3511]

Yeah of course the list goes on. And on......... and on..........
But at some point it's got to stop.
It would be impossible for everybody to be happy. If they even gave me 50% of my last return, I'd pack up tomorrow and do what they are asking of us all.

Ok.
50% of what then? We don't even know how long a lockdown would be. They're not going to pay out 50% of 12 months if you're off work for much less than that.

Surely you'd just pro rata it by day/week/month. 50% of last year and I'd stop tomorrow.

[davids3511]

My local MP has indicated to me twice this week that there are further measures to be brought in on Monday/Tuesday for the self employed.

80% of last years self assessment is fair given what employed people are getting. As said above all the figures are there to see.

Those that have under-declared won’t be happy with the above but that’s the choice they made when not paying their taxes correctly.

I'm buggered as a limited company then, not enough salary as an employee (id get about £600 a month on the 80% rule) but most of tax paid on company profits, not self assessment.

[Slacky]

So if you've been paying yourself £750 a month where has the profit all gone that you would otherwise have had if you weren't an employee?

[p1w1]

My local MP has indicated to me twice this week that there are further measures to be brought in on Monday/Tuesday for the self employed.

80% of last years self assessment is fair given what employed people are getting. As said above all the figures are there to see.

Those that have under-declared won’t be happy with the above but that’s the choice they made when not paying their taxes correctly.

I'm buggered as a limited company then, not enough salary as an employee (id get about £600 a month on the 80% rule) but most of tax paid on company profits, not self assessment.

But if you have been paying yourself that, then you've been able to live off that, so i dont see how you are that much worse off. Except that currently your business may not make much money.

[davids3511]

So if you've been paying yourself £750 a month where has the profit all gone that you would otherwise have had if you weren't an employee?

Same place your income goes Matt I expect. Mortgage, council tax etc.

[davids3511]

My local MP has indicated to me twice this week that there are further measures to be brought in on Monday/Tuesday for the self employed.

80% of last years self assessment is fair given what employed people are getting. As said above all the figures are there to see.

Those that have under-declared won’t be happy with the above but that’s the choice they made when not paying their taxes correctly.

I'm buggered as a limited company then, not enough salary as an employee (id get about £600 a month on the 80% rule) but most of tax paid on company profits, not self assessment.

But if you have been paying yourself that, then you've been able to live off that, so i dont see how you are that much worse off. Except that currently your business may not make much money.

Obviously I don't live off £750 a month. When you run a limited company you pay yourself a small wage (hence the £750 a month), pay 20% tax on the company profits and a further 7% dividend tax.

[Slacky]

So if you've been paying yourself £750 a month where has the profit all gone that you would otherwise have had if you weren't an employee?

Same place your income goes Matt I expect. Mortgage, council tax etc.

Thats not profit.

[davids3511]

So if you've been paying yourself £750 a month where has the profit all gone that you would otherwise have had if you weren't an employee?

Same place your income goes Matt I expect. Mortgage, council tax etc.

Thats not profit.

Once you've paid your corporation tax (20%) you take the rest (profit) as a dividend. You then pay a further 7% on that dividend and what's left pays mortgage, council tax etc.

[A J Butt]

I've suspended all my work for a further two weeks, I've text and emailed my customers and the response I had was very positive and grateful. although we don't really come into contact with our customers the more people staying at home the quicker (hopefully) we can get back to a normal life. why wait until the government tell us to stop because by that time we  could have lost a large percentage of customers through cancellation or sadly there passing. Stay safe ...

[Cookie]

I've suspended all my work for a further two weeks, I've text and emailed my customers and the response I had was very positive and grateful. although we don't really come into contact with our customers the more people staying at home the quicker (hopefully) we can get back to a normal life. why wait until the government tell us to stop because by that time we  could have lost a large percentage of customers through cancellation or sadly there passing. Stay safe ...

Yes, I've decided to do the same - I'm lucky however in that I have another PAYE job where I can work from home. I would say that roughly 75% of  customers on my round would be classed as "at risk". I do think however that you'll be suspending your work for a bit more than two weeks...

[tlwcs]

I went with the first in the end
Yes as normal, but changed the text a little. 21 sent 4 saying it’s ok to come.
I rarely get replies, it just a courtesy text
I know it will change, but I can live off 1/3 of my round or a few months if we have lockdown
Don’t second guess your custards
Stay well
Tony

[dazmond]

I went with the first in the end
Yes as normal, but changed the text a little. 21 sent 4 saying it’s ok to come.
I rarely get replies, it just a courtesy text
I know it will change, but I can live off 1/3 of my round or a few months if we have lockdown
Don’t second guess your custards
Stay well
Tony

each to their own but i only text customers for access reasons(or the odd courtesy text for larger jobs).....no mention of the virus at all....

i personally believe its going to be impossible for us to work very soon........loads of cars on drives,families and kids playing out in the gardens then we turn up......itll be worse than trying to work on a sunday.....

as the virus spreads and the death toll mounts we will be forced to have the next 3 months off (at least) i reckon.....

[G Griffin]

Yeah of course the list goes on. And on......... and on..........
But at some point it's got to stop.
It would be impossible for everybody to be happy. If they even gave me 50% of my last return, I'd pack up tomorrow and do what they are asking of us all.

Ok.
50% of what then? We don't even know how long a lockdown would be. They're not going to pay out 50% of 12 months if you're off work for much less than that.

Surely you'd just pro rata it by day/week/month. 50% of last year and I'd stop tomorrow.

Pro rata of what? We don't know how long it will be. And until we know, you can't pro rata 50% of anything and how long would it take to get paid?
It's all pasties in the clouds anyway; it won't happen.

[zesty]

Guys, stop adding to the hype and calm down.

For some reason, even though having a lot of expenses last year/early this year, I’m not worried.

Don’t worry about what you can’t change.

So far we can still work, just take precautions, stay clean, minimise contact with people.

Put it this way, even if you start missing bills, then most of the population will be the same.

Don’t worry, the bailiffs won’t be working either. We will just need to pick up where we’ve left off once this blows over. Unless of course other things kick off afterwards, but that’s a different story.   

Jonny I tend to agree, but:

This could all go one of two ways...

1. It’s over in the next 12 weeks and things pick up pretty quickly throughout the rest of the year.

2. It’s over in 12 weeks and the economy is in such a bad way that we (in this trade) suffer big losses.

I’m a glass half full man, so I’m going with option 1 but not ‘presuming’ on option 1.

Mate of mine has lost a massive chunk of window cleaning work in the last week, he did loads of restaurants and shopping centres etc, they’ve all shut down. So no income.

It really is a bit of a mish mash at the moment, some people hardly effected, some people very effected.

How well window cleaners flourish will depend entirely on the economy after, if history is to go by, we should be ok. But this is definitely different!

[davids3511]

Yeah of course the list goes on. And on......... and on..........
But at some point it's got to stop.
It would be impossible for everybody to be happy. If they even gave me 50% of my last return, I'd pack up tomorrow and do what they are asking of us all.

Ok.
50% of what then? We don't even know how long a lockdown would be. They're not going to pay out 50% of 12 months if you're off work for much less than that.

Surely you'd just pro rata it by day/week/month. 50% of last year and I'd stop tomorrow.

Pro rata of what? We don't know how long it will be. And until we know, you can't pro rata 50% of anything and how long would it take to get paid?
It's all pasties in the clouds anyway; it won't happen.

Hi Griff, Im working on the principle of lockdown and us not being allowed to work. If its a 2 month lockdown then last years tax return divided by 6. Then 50% of that.

Agreed, it'll take an age to get it. If we follow the Italians we won't be banned from working so we'll get bugger all but public distaste will effectively ban us anyway.

[G Griffin]

Morning, David.
I think most would take 50%. Would that be profit or turnover? There are still running costs but some are fixed and some are variable.
I think it's pointless speculating, mate. I do think we'll hear something though. It does seem unfair that we are asked not to work without being reasonably recompensed .

[Missing Link]

Mate of mine has lost a massive chunk of window cleaning work in the last week, he did loads of restaurants and shopping centres etc, they’ve all shut down. So no income.

I'm kinda lucky in that about 20% of my work is commercial, much of which won't be getting done till things pick up (I don't believe it's lost), but that was mostly the best part of our work.

Just printing out a letter, along the lines of what Soupy posted, and I'm going to deliver it to my domestic customers (I'll e-mail and text some too):

--------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer,
Following guidance from the government we have taken the following steps to help safeguard our customers and ourselves.
   We will, for the time being, not enter into any homes to carry out inside cleaning.
   We encourage all customers to pay online.  If this is not possible, please leave payment on    the door step. 
   We will have limited interaction and we will respect the government's social distancing rules.
We will wash or anti-bac between jobs.
   You are still welcome to wave at us through the windows.

Obviously this situation is developing rapidly and we will take whatever steps required of us, but for the time being it is business as usual (as usual as possible in the circumstances).

And if you're an at risk customer and require anything from the shops, please do not hesitate to give us a shout.

If you have any concerns please feel free to contact me over the phone or via email or facebook.
----------------------------------------------------------------------