May 2024 newsletter
Office of the Small Business Commissioner
Set up under the Enterprise Act 2016 to tackle late payment and unfavourable payment practices in the private sector.
Read time: 3 minutes
Top lines
- Commissioner's update
- Casework update
- Prompt Payment Code?
Commissioner's update
Payments between bigger businesses and their smaller suppliers are our meat and drink here at OSBC. Helping small businesses resolve disputes, answering their queries, and advising on how to charge interest on overdue invoices is what gets us out of bed in the morning. We’re constantly discussing with bigger firms the benefits to the economy and wider society, local communities and supply chains of paying suppliers quicker. As I type, I’m also preparing for a panel session on how paying quicker can contribute to wider social value and have just returned from a meeting on encouraging the uptake of e-invoicing to speed up payment processes.?
Small businesses need confidence to invest, improve productivity and grow. They won’t have that confidence without certainty about being paid and when. But the elephant in the room, the issue that often gets neglected in these discussions, is the mental health impact of worrying about payments.?
This is #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek and I’m asking everyone involved in payments in bigger firms, from procurement through what can be a long approvals process, to the accounts payable people, to spare a thought for smaller suppliers waiting for unnecessarily long periods to get paid or worrying about overdue payments.?
Those suppliers will be losing sleep because of worry, will delay investing because of lack of certainly, and are quite possibly struggling with their mental health as a result. You may have it in your power to improve payment processes in the business you work for, leading to greater certainty amongst your suppliers. That in turn could result in added social value in the communities your suppliers operate in: taking on local people, training and upskilling, buying better equipment, volunteering and help local charities or organisations for young people.?
You may work for a big corporate and may never have worked for a small business, but you too could help change business relationships with suppliers for the better, contribute to the wider society and help avoid some of the mental health problems so prevalent in small business owners. We can all play a part in improving the shocking mental health statistics.
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Casework update
This month our Caseworkers have received enquiries from start-ups about funding options to help them scale up. It’s not in our remit to advise businesses about finance however, the UK has a network of 38 growth hubs that work across the country with local and national, public and private sector partners – such as Universities, Enterprise Zones and Banks, that help coordinate local business support and connect businesses to the right help for their needs. To find out more about grants, visit your local growth hub by using the growth hub finder.
When our team members talk to small businesses about non-payment problems, we urge them to carry out their due diligence before saying yes to taking on future work. The Payment Practice Reporting (PPR) data can be used to check when large businesses pay their suppliers. By using this tool, you can find out the average time it takes for a large business to pay its suppliers, and the proportion of payments (for example, invoice payments) that it does not pay on time. This should help inform your decision about working with the company in question.
You can also visit our website for guidance to help you get paid quicker and negotiate fairer payment terms with customers before you agree to do a piece of work.
New PPC signatories
Below are some of the organisations that signed up to the PPC in May:
Our signatories represent all sectors and regions across the UK economy. Want to join the Code? Visit the PPC website.
For late payment complaints or support with payment practices:
You can also visit the OSBC website for tips, guidance and our interest rate calculator. Email our Comms Team, for media, collaboration, engagement enquiries or if you would like the Small Business Commissioner to attend or speak at an event.