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With the last weeks temporary recruitment figures being so spectacularly bad (yet amazingly not as bad as projected) I feel it would be somewhat crass to continue with the optimistic tone of the last couple of weeks given that some of you are having trouble finding consistent work.

Resorting to realism then, we've had a few calls from umbrella company members taking holiday pay to cover a couple of weeks between contracts. It's an excellent idea right now simply because all holiday pay has to be taken before the end of March (I know I harp on about it, but if you don't take it, it's gone, and right now I'd say every penny counts). If you are between jobs it will probably mean you aren't using your tax free allowance so we can apply it to the holiday payment as well.

I realise it's no consolation for actually working but it's a positive step you can take at short notice, and it may stop you having to dip into the savings I know a lot of you put aside. If you are stuck we would like to hear from you, it might seem like a long shot but we might be able to help.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, this year's tax bands have already been set, which is extremely helpful, but the budget itself has been delayed until the 22nd of April. It may slow things down, but after that budgets should be nailed down and contracts should be more consistent.

That sounded dangerously like optimism again, I'm not sure what came over me.

Hugo
18/02/2009