IPSE Price Changes: Q and A

14 Sep 2020

IPSE is raising some of its membership prices in October 2020. We have made significant improvements in recent months to make sure you’re getting more from your membership –but also, in financially difficult times, we need a little more support to keep campaigning for you and protecting your business.

Nevertheless, we understand the changes will raise some questions and we’ve tried to answer a few of them here for you.

Price Changes Q&A

Why are you raising prices?

We have listened to IPSE members and are now giving you more in your membership package.
We have not increased prices in line with inflation for two years. Now, like many other membership organisations, we are feeling the financial strain. To keep championing you in government, we need a little more support.
We are, however, more responsive than ever and will keep improving your membership product and getting you more involved in our policy work.

What improvements have been made to justify this price rise?

We have created a library of webinar recordings available only to members, with advice and guidance on tax, coronavirus support and much more.
We have added the Markel Law Hub, which gives members access to thousands of template contracts and letters, as well as guides and advice – for a 69% discount.
We are doing more than ever to make sure you understand and can access all the benefits of your IPSE membership.
We have improved our website to help you make the most of your benefits.
We are doing more than ever to involve members in our campaigning and research.
We are currently creating a freelancer job board to help members find work through IPSE.
We are currently creating new means of advising and supporting members on cybercrime.

I don’t want these improvements – can I keep paying the previous price?

No, we are making these improvements to all membership packages – it would be very technically complex to maintain different versions of each package.
We need to increase the price of our packages and we are doing more than ever before to make sure you get value for money from them.

Why is Standard membership going up more?

IPSE’s Standard Membership now includes a range of very valuable insurances to protect you and your business. We are raising the price of Standard Membership to partially offset the cost of this. The insurances are much more valuable than the increase:
- Tax investigation cover: £100,000 indemnity
- Pre-tax dispute cover of £250 per day up to £750
- Client default cover – up to £2,500 if your client defaults
- Jury service cover – up to £1,500 per claim
- A 10 per cent discount on business insurance such as Professional Indemnity and Public Liability insurance through our partner Markel.
It is more cost-effective to pay for Standard Membership on an annual basis. If you are concerned about the price rise and currently pay monthly, we recommend switching to annual payments.

If I pay monthly will my price go up immediately in October

No, the price increase will only come into effect from your next annual renewal date.

Plus and Standard memberships are increasing – why is Essentials staying the same?

Essentials is a new basic package of IPSE Membership. Since we only just introduced it, we do not need to increase its price.

What will IPSE membership mean after IR35 comes into effect in 2021?

Your tax investigation insurance will remain relevant because HMRC can launch retrospective IR35 investigations for any time in the last 6 years.
There are many other features to IPSE membership aside from tax investigation, including legal and tax advice lines, illness and injury cover, jury cover, and template letters and contracts.
IPSE is also still the only leading voice dedicated to the self-employed.
IPSE has done more than any other group over the last ten years to fight for freelancers on a range of different policy issues.
We have had major wins on delaying IR35 and getting government to review it, as well as including the small companies exemption. We have also had wins on reversing the hike in self-employed NICs, introducing the Small Business Commissioner and many other.
We are now campaigning hard for the self-employed against threatened self-employed tax hikes. We overturned the NICs increase in 2017 and we can do it again.

Will my tax investigation insurance still be of use after 2021?

Yes, HMRC can retrospectively investigate you for any time in the last six years and your IPSE membership will cover you for that period

IPSE is a campaigning organisation: what wins has it had to justify my membership?

IR35 is a core issue for IPSE and our lobbying continues. We are disappointed the government has chosen to press ahead with the private sector changes and we have told them so.
Although we are disappointed government is pushing ahead with the IR35 changes, our campaigning has not been in vain:
- Initially the govt wanted to implement the changes in 2019 – a combination of our lobbying and Covid pushed them back to 2020.
- IPSE successfully lobbied for small clients to be exempted from the changes
- IPSE successfully lobbied for contractors to have the right to challenge the client’s determination (although we continue to push for improvements to the mechanism)
IPSE is now pushing for fundamental reform of the tax system which would make IR35 redundant.
IPSE was the organisation initially calling for support for freelancers and the self-employed during the coronavirus crisis. We did not get everything we called for in SEISS, such as limited company support and the inclusion of the newly self-employed. However, we mounted a campaign to get these groups included, which gained national coverage and put pressure on government.
We even created a solution to include limited company dividend revenue in the scheme, which was adopted by the Treasury Select Committee.
Government is now threatening significant tax rises on the self-employed sector and we are campaigning hard against them.

If you have any other questions, just use our contact form or give our Membership team a call on 020 8897 9970

IPSE Price Changes: Q and A

Price Changes Q&A

Contact the Membership team with any of your questions