Comments on: MAC Review Shakes Up IT Contractor Recruitment

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 15:10:59 +0000

There is no shortage of people, several IT contractors are looking for contracts but there are not many to apply. Companies are on hiring freeze for very long time now and that includes public sector. One available are paying very low day rates. So whoever is thinking of this change should really check the ground reality.

By: Semaj

Semaj — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 08:52:21 +0000

There is absolutely not a skills shortage in the UK. Any contractor working in IT will tell you this.

There are however a hugely reduced number of opportunities for IT workers in the UK. Large organisations have cut budgets and laid off thousands of staff.

Vacancies are down between 80 to 90% from two years ago. This is a complete collapse and demise of the IT contracting industry.

The government should be focused on igniting that industry, not on Ring and people from across the world to take what a few vacancies there are.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 08:24:10 +0000

There are many articles suggesting that a significant factor in finding resources to fulfill IT assignments is the ‘IR35’ legislation. These ring true in my experience.
I have turned down several assignments in the last 6 months because the ‘numbers don’t add up’ for the effort required. Only in very few occasions have corporations adjusted budgets to account for the additional tax that needs to go to the Treasury – even the EMPLOYER’S element of national insurance seems to be expected to come out of the supplier’s fee. These asisgnments, even though being subject to employer’s and employee’s NI and PAYE TAX, continue to be tendered as ‘contracts for service’ – with no additional sick/holiday pay or pension contribution and no employment rights.

[Limited Company contractors were one of the few groups that didn’t get a bail-out from the government during COVID – they didn’t add to the debt pile – employed PAYE workers got their payments to ‘stay-at-home’ – Limited Company Contractors didn’t get hand-outs from the government (loan facilities were made available….but these were loans to be paid back, not hand-outs). The government (Conservative and Labour) continues to tell us that we ALL have to accept being poorer ….’IR35′ effects the people who contributed least to the debt pile.]

Address this factor and I’m sure a signifcant number of assignments would be filled and the ‘gap’ would be far less significant and less politically sensitive to address with a smaller amount of targeted short term visas, and of course, better training (but the need for better training and development requires a response in it’s own right I think)

Government policy seems to favour the big consulting firms (using inexperienced SMEs) to supply IT services (e.g. Fujitsu, Deloitte) and bringing in cheap labour from abroad. This all fuels profits for large corporations…..it is these organisations that lobby MPs well and help shape policy.

By: David

David — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:00:48 +0000

Consecutive UK governments, through the implementation of HRMC IR35, have driven UK clients to assign work, where possible, outside the UK mainland, benefitting overseas governments with increasing GDP/tax revenue and killing off its own UK’s skilled worker/contractor workforce. So rather than seeking to explore the root cause of the issue, the UK government is now considering trying to get overseas workers/contractors to work within the UK mainland via the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). If this were to be put into a fictional novel, no one would believe the storyline and ask, “Why would a national government impose this self-harm policy!”