Umbrella company contractors who receive tax credits or other financial assistance may be interested to learn that HMRC recently signed a deal with Experian to help it catch people who fraudulently claim tax credits and other benefits.

The Revenue and the Department for Work and Pensions have signed a one-year contract with the credit reference agency. Experian will use data matching methods to try and reduce the £770 million the government currently overpays because claimants fail to reveal partners or income when they submit their applications.

All means tested benefits will come under the spotlight, including Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance and Pension Credit.

The coalition says it recently ran a pilot scheme, which saved it paying out more than £16 million in tax credits to fraudulent claimants. Fraud investigators are already looking into the first batch of cases identified by Experian.

Over the twelve-month contract period, the Revenue expects to save in the region of £700 million, while the Department of Work and Pensions hopes to save at least £100 million.

David Gauke, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said the tie-up with Experian would enable the Revenue to step up its fight against fraudulent tax credit claimants and make sure guilty parties are caught and punished.

Last year, Experian said that the government could save at least £1 billion if it ran comprehensive checks on claimants’ personal data. At the time, the company’s public sector head of fraud said that more than £17 billion was lost every year to fraud in the public sector.

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Freelancers in the public sector have had a roller coaster year so far and they will probably be relieved to learn that demand for IT contractors in the sector rose sharply in September.

Computer People recently released its latest figures showing that roles for IT contractors in the public sector increased by 4.3% in September; a reflection that critical projects are still going ahead despite the spending cuts.

The agency commented that although times are hard in the public sector, managers are more likely to use contractors because they can attribute the costs to project budgets, rather than fixed costs.

Sid Barnes, one of Computer People’s directors, said the permanent market has fared worse than the contract one over the past half-year and this could mean contractors are getting the work that would normally have gone to permanent employees.

An increasing number of public sector projects were re-instated and new ones approved. Hiring managers also received new budgets and were keen to snap up quality contractors. The demand for C #, .Net and Oracle contractors has been steadily increasing and although database developers saw rates decrease slightly in September, it is thought there is still money in the pot.

The agency also believes demand for IT contractors will increase further in the first quarter of next year as managers try to spend any left over budget before the year-end.

However, what will that mean when it comes to the second quarter? Barnes believes that spending will reflect both budget levels and managers’ confidence levels in the IT community as a whole.

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We’re continually hearing gloomy predictions about UK economic growth and demand for contractors in many sectors has been decreasing recently.

However, that could be changing. The Reed recruitment agency has released the results of its October Jobs Index survey, which reveals the largest month on month increase in job opportunities for almost two years.

The accountancy, IT, marketing and sales sectors all saw impressive increases, and although public sector demand is still low, it increased by nine points in to end October with a reading of 66.

The Reed Job Index began in December 2009 and a baseline figure was set at 100. October’s reading was 129 indicating that demand has risen by 29% in the two-year period.

Demand in the voluntary sector increased by an impressive 43 points, whilst the IT sector rose by 24 points to end the month on 173. PAYE umbrella company contractors also saw 2.5% more temporary opportunities in October than they did in September.

Tim Lovell, Reed’s Group MD, said the October Jobs Index recorded the best month-on-month increase in employment vacancies since the index began, with all 12 UK areas witnessing at least some growth.

He went on to point out that the North/South divide that we hear so much about is not as clear cut as some would make out. Last month, there was particularly strong growth in opportunities for candidates in Yorkshire and Humberside and London.

Salaries remained pretty much unchanged in October and the Reed Salary Index now reads 97, indicating a 3% decrease since December 2009. However, the retail and leisure and tourism sectors did record increases – up to 116 and 102 respectively.

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According to jobadswatch.co.uk, the third quarter of 2011 saw an increase in the number of opportunities for IT umbrella company contractors.

The website’s data shows a 4.7% increase in the number of adverts for freelancers on the main IT and multi-sector UK recruitment sites in Q3. The number of adverts for full-time IT staff also increased, but only by 1%. However, these figures show that IT recruitment has been expanding for the last nine consecutive quarters.

Jobsadwatch expects this upturn will continue, as employers frequently turn to contractors in the first instance when hiring conditions improve.

However, there are regional disparities and IT contractors in the North West actually saw a 13% decrease in the number of job adverts in the third quarter, whilst Inner London registered the most new contracts.

Adverts for contractors with AGILE skills were up by 38%, followed by .Net with a 23% increase. AGILE is very much the new kid in town, but is rapidly gaining in popularity. There has been a 75% increase in demand for permanent staff with this particular IT skill over the past year.

None of the IT skills registered a fall in demand, but candidates hoping to secure a public sector IT contract saw a 40% drop in adverts.

Financial services firms are now looking for more IT contractors than they were this time last year, as are software houses.

The Monster Employment Index also registered a 19% increase in IT recruitment over the past 12 months. Despite this, the IT sector dropped to fifth place in the monster overall rankings. Engineering topped the chart, transport and logistics came in second and maintenance and construction occupied the third and fourth places.

Monster’s Employment Index also showed that in September, six out of the nine regions in the UK saw an annual increase in online job vacancies. Best of all was the South West where opportunities increased by 22%.

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Contractors working through an umbrella company might be interested to learn that nearly 50% of the UK’s SMEs are struggling to find the right staff.

The British Chamber of Commerce surveyed 6,000 small businesses and discovered that 45% of them felt it was either quite difficult or very difficult to find employees who were a good fit for a position.

We now have 2.57 million unemployed individuals in the UK and this figure could rise further as more people are made redundant from the public sector. Despite this, a lot of firms say candidates simply don’t possess the right skills. They complain that candidates are deficient in literacy and numeracy, whilst softer skills such as communication and timekeeping are also in short supply.

Only 45% of companies said they were very or fairly confident when it came to recruiting graduates, and that percentage dropped down to 29% when it comes to the recruitment of school-leavers with A-levels or an equivalent qualification.

The survey also showed that private sector bodies have little confidence when it comes to hiring ex-public sector workers or people who have spent at least six months without a job.

John Longworth, the BCC’s director general, said companies need capable workers in order to remain competitive and many SMEs want to expand their workforce but are struggling to find candidates with the right skills.

We have record youth unemployment and yet companies feel our education system is not equipping young people with the basic literacy and numeracy skills they need to survive in the world of work. Furthermore, employers feel that youngsters are lacking in the ‘softer’ skills, such as communication and timekeeping, which are essential to a successful work environment.

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Umbrella company contractors will be pleased to learn that despite the global economic turmoil, their rates have managed to increase.

The average hourly rate for contractors with the ten most requested skills rose from £30.84 at the end of the first half of 2011 to £31.25 now. Although this may seem to be a modest rise at just over 1%, it is still an increase.

London and the South East of England appear much healthier than the rest of the UK, and the private sector is in much better shape than the public sector.

ReThink Recruitment recently released data claiming that 40% of new roles for IT contractors are based in London. Before the recession, only a third of IT contractor roles were based in London.

Matthew Brown, the MD of Giant, pointed out that a third of contractors expect the financial services sector will create a large proportion of jobs over the next 12 months, and a lot of these companies are based either in the City or the South East. Banks are looking to increase their productivity and demand for people with cloud computing skills has risen sharply.

APSCo claims that demand across the finance sector has shot up by 65% in the past year, mainly driven by concerns over regulatory compliance.

It will come as no surprise to learn that IT contractors in the public sector are not so confident about future prospects. Only 9% believe the public sector will create more IT roles than the private sector in the coming year.

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As public sector redundancies really start to bite, more women public sector workers could be tempted to go it alone and either set up their own business or become an umbrella company contractor.

Over the last ten years, the number of women working in the public sector has risen at a faster rate than it has for men, according to the TUC. As public sector job cuts increase, so female unemployment will rise, the organisation explained, and this at a time when female unemployment is at its highest level in 23 years.

Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, pointed out that we are already starting to see the affects of public sector cuts and areas with a high concentration of public sector employment are already feeling the pain. George Osborne’s plans to create jobs are woefully inadequate and complacency over economic growth is coming back to haunt us, he added.

Despite continuing uncertainty in the sector, many public sector workers would rather stay put than transfer to the private sector, according to Badenoch & Clark recruitment consultants.

Its survey found that two thirds of workers in the public sector are sitting tight in their present role. 15% want to stay because of better benefits but around 50% said their length of service made them reluctant to leave.

The MD of Badenoch & Clark, Nicola Linkleter, said public sector employers need to support and nurture this sentiment. They should be identifying and rewarding top talent to make sure they keep hold of key employees and are in a position to attract external talent in the future.

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Graduates struggling to find a full-time job after leaving university may decide that setting up their own business is an attractive alternative.

According to research by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, graduates are waiting up to three and a half years to secure a full-time position. The HESA surveyed 49,065 people who graduated in 2007 and discovered that 28% of them were working part-time last year. 3.5% of respondents said their status was “other” which HESA interpreted as meaning unemployed.

The general secretary of the University and College Union, Sally Hunt, said it was worrying that an increasing number of graduates remain without a job. It’s now even harder to secure employment and new students coming into a system which charges the highest university fees in entire world deserve to have better prospects. Countries which invest in their graduates will be the ones that reap the rewards.

Another study, this time from totaljobs.com has found that only 9% of graduates would rather work in the public sector than in the charity or private sector.

This does seem to be surprising considering the amount of time it takes to find a job. Totaljobs.com’s graduate director, Mike Fetters, explained that the public sector was a top destination for graduates a few years ago and there are still opportunities available despite the spending cuts. He went on to say that the public sector offers career progression and good training and graduates should at least consider the wide range of opportunities available.

The survey also found that 82% of graduate jobseekers think the jobs market is now tougher than it was a couple of years ago.

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Sage, the business software company has discovered that more than 50% of small businesses think there is still a glass ceiling for women in the workplace.

35% of respondents to the Sage survey think that women are more empathetic than men in business and 22% believe women are more aggressive when it comes to dealing with colleagues. Only 12% think men are the more aggressive sex. In Scotland, 30% of firms are led by a female, but in the North East of England that drops to less than 10%.

Earlier this year, Vince Cable and Theresa May called on FTSE 350 companies to set goals to increase the number of females in the boardroom by this September, and by 2015 to have at least 25% of senior positions held by women.

The HR director at Sage UK, Adrienne Mcfarland, sees it as a positive move for the government to address boardroom inequality, but the recommended quotas do not appear to have had the desired impact on FTSE 350 firms.

She went on to say that it might be time to think about different ways to increase the number of women at the top of listed companies, maybe through mentoring or training programmes.

However, new research by Friends Life suggests that the glass ceiling will not come down this decade. 55% of women believe a gender pay gap will still exist in 2020 and 53% think it will still be hard for women to secure a senior role.

Public sector organisations have been making big strides when it comes to offering flexible working hours for working mothers, but they still have a long way to go. The majority of working mothers would like subsidised childcare, a shorter working week and the ability to do their work at home.

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Recent research findings from Badenoch & Clark show that nearly 67% of public workers have decided to remain in their current position and 31% say they are happy in their current role. Yorkshire has the highest percentage of content employees at 44.7%.

The professional recruitment agency surveyed 1,000 public sector employees and found that almost 15% are attracted to public sector benefits such as pensions. A further 41% say their length of service makes them reluctant to leave, and this figure increased to 51% of public sector employees in the North East of England. 38.3% of public sector workers said making a difference was the prime motivator to remain in their role.

Nicola Linkleter, the MD of Badenoch & Clark, said these results show that a lot of public sector workers still have a sense of belonging despite the unprecedented changes that have affected the sector in recent months.

Employees who have been in the same role for some years are fearful of change, but the work/life balance that comes with working in the public sector and the sense of purpose they get from their employment encourages many to stay. Benefits, such as pensions, still rank highly but there are some even stronger drivers to retain staff within the sector.

It’s now up to public sector employers to support and nurture their staff throughout the period of change and acknowledge their expertise and commitment. Employers must reward top talent if they want to keep hold of their key employees and attract external talent in the future, she concluded.

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New research by the CIMA shows that most businesses believe they will survive the next 12 months. 69% are now extremely confident that they will survive, a big jump from the 34% that expressed such a high level of optimism in March.

Nevertheless, many firms are still cautious of the challenges that lie ahead. More than 50% say that falling customer demand is a matter for concern, whilst 37% are worried about the price of materials and supplies. Just over a third say economic and political instability concerns them and 29% are worried about regulatory requirements.

Business opinion is divided over whether government austerity measures increase optimism or not. High inflation, unemployment and rising fuel prices are also causing concern for a number of companies.

Public sector organisations expect to see reduced headcounts because of the government’s spending cuts but sectors such as banking and transport do not expect the austerity measures to impact their hiring activities.

The CIMA’s MD, Andrew Harding, said the fear of a double-dip recession appears to be receding with a sharp decrease in the number of firms expecting the country to fall back into recession.

The second quarter showed a marked decrease in the number of financial services companies experiencing distress, according to Begbies Traynor.

In fact the Red Flag Alert Report for Q2 shows the number potentially in distress dropped 48% to 1,915 compared to quarter one. The total is now very near the 1,900 recorded this time last year.

Although the number of companies with significant financial problems is decreasing, there are now 5,179 firms with critical financial problems, up from 4,620 in the first quarter of the year. The executive chairman of the Begbies Traynor Group, Ric Traynor, said that although the drop in the number of firms with significant financial problems could be a glimmer of hope, weaker businesses have moved from the significant to the critical stage.

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The Office for Budget Responsibility says that tougher austerity measures and higher taxes are needed if Britain is to achieve long term fiscal sustainability.

The UK has an ageing population that is putting pressure on the long term sustainability of public finances, according to a report published earlier this month from the OBR. Over the next fifty years, the number of people in retirement will increase sharply, whilst the number of working age individuals will decline. Currently we have 4 people working to support one pensioner, but that ratio will soon become 2:1.

Analysts predict that the UK population will reach 75 million by 2060, putting additional pressures on the cost of pensions and health care. Without substantial policy changes, the OBR warns that UK net debt levels will rise above 100% by 2060.

In order to bring the debt level down to 40%, the government will need to find an extra £22 billion. The key to sustainable public finances lies with public health but unless NHS productivity improves the UK’s debt levels could rise dramatically.

The OBR report also showed the financial services industry contributed approximately £40 billion of GDP in tax, in 2007. However, it is thought the sector’s contribution will drop to about £34.6 billion if tax rates remain unchanged. The OBR therefore expects the UK economy will rely less on financial services in future years.

The British Chamber of Commerce’s chief economist, David Kern, said the report suggests that we are unlikely to see a return to the level of public sector spending witnessed before the recession. The UK has to adapt its ambitions to more limited resources and acknowledge that the private sector is responsible for creating wealth through greater productivity and increased growth.

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