Going self employed, considerations?

[morleylass]

I've seen a job I'm interested in, with a charity but the position is self employed. What sort of things do I need to consider?
So far thought of:
Have to sort out own tax
No pension & life assurance
No holiday pay
No sick pay
Will the contract only be for a set period or can it be indefinite?

What else will be different to paid employment?

TIA

MLx

No benefits like maternity pay (if that's relevant).

Also bear in mind that the position needs to be genuinely self employed (i.e. not to just get out of someone being an employee) or both of you could get in trouble with HMRC later...

The first thing I'd say is question whether this job is genuinely self-employed.

Whether a person is employed or self-employed isn't something either the employer or employee get to choose. It is defined by the nature of the relationship between you. So if the nature of your relationship with this organisation would be similar to a salaried employee, it is likely that you will be an employee and therefore entitled to employment rights like anyone else.

The fact that you've 'seen' (presumably advertised) a 'job' already implies that it might be an employed position.

Have a look here at the list of questions to work out your employment status. If you ignore the ones about what you are entitled to in terms of holiday, SMP etc, because you are being told at the moment (rightly or wrongly) that you are not. Focus on the ones about the relationship between you, who decides what you do, whether you can send someone else to do your job if you want to, whether you have or could have other clients, that type of thing, and then take a view.

Thanks for that, very interesting.
It does look like it could be an employee position as it advertises the no. of hours each week and the rate of pay, but the role holder works from home and has to invoice to be paid so not clear. I will try and find out more.
Thanks
MLx

It does sound as though it might be employed I agree. Working from home isn't really any indicator that the person would be self-employed and although usually self-employed people invoice and employed people are paid through a payroll, that in itself wouldn't mean the role was self-employed if other, more important indicators demonstrated otherwise.

Hmm - I would disagree (and I never disagree with Flowery ).

I work for a number of different organisations on a regular basis and I'm self-employed. For many of my jobs there is a set number of hours I'm supposed to do in a week, and a set hourly rate of pay. What makes it self-employed is that it's up to me when I do them (IMHO).

I would add to your list:
In most self-employed work there is no notice period (unless it's a set period contract in the beginning).
What about office expenses - will you be refunded for phone calls & stationery?

I don't think we necessarily disagree Bramshott

From the limited information we've got it did sound to me as though this position might be employed rather than self-employed. The fact that the OP having read the questions in the link thinks it might be employed reinforces that. But it still might not be and I don't think anything conflicts with your self-employed status anyway. For example it doesn't sound like the OP is self-employed already and working for several different organisations.

The bottom line is we don't know. But it does sound like it might not be and my advice to people in the OP's position is just not to take an employer's word for it that something is self-employed, but to take an informed view themselves.

I also have a very suspicious mind when it comes to things like this, having experienced at an organisation I worked at a few years ago managers routinely trying to get around headcount restrictions by saying people they wanted to hire were 'self-employed'. Some organisations do a similar thing to avoid their employment responsibilities, so I do often put this face on when I think that could be happening!

Having re-read everything and another link on that site and your further posts flowery and bramshott I might be changing my mind, although tbh there isn't a lot of information to go on.
I've emailed and asked about if there is a contract length and how expenses would be dealt with. Other questions I have I feel I would have to ask should I get an interview.

It looks really interesting and worthwhile, but whether I am prepared to take the jump from employment at a large company with the benefits that I enjoy to potentially being in quite a vulnerable position I'm not sure. Unfortunately it's starting to look less attractive, and I haven't even applied yet !
Thanks for your help
ML