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Riot (Damages) Act claims
Did I hear the Prime Minister say in Parliament that the period for lodging Riot (Damages) Act claims had been extended from 14 days to 42 days?
Riot damages
Yes, see Direct Gov website which will provide claim forms shortly. I blogged earlier today on the reaction from various bodies - ACAS,banks and Companies House are also prepared to be sympathetic/flexible if e.g. documents are lost or short term finance is needed.
There is no current alternative
Best thing that could happen is for Nick Clegg to pull out of coalition and force a general election.
This advice does not appear to have any relevance to the question of what accountants can do to help in the riots' aftermath.
Nick Clegg will not pull out of the coalition in the foreseeable future because all the opinion polls show that his party would then lose most of its seats. If there was a General Election there would be the risk of returning to power the party that put the country in its current parlous position. That position includes leaving us with a minority of youngsters who are ill-educated, ill-disciplined and unemployable. But only a minority - almost all the youngsters I encounter are courteous and industrious. The proposed cuts are not an excuse for the riots because, stringent or not, they have only started to be implemented.
@southsands
I don't think the riots have anything to do with foreigners let in to work or indeed budget cuts but everything to do with bad attitudes / lack of respect / bad education within certain sections of society. The sad fact is that our own unemployed seem to have been unwilling or unable to do the necessary work that the half million or so Eastern Europeans came to do.
Apart from possibly the initial riot, none of the subsequent riots seem to have been "political". They seem to have been opportunistic looting by quickly assembled groups of people that believed the police had lost control and that there would be little chance of getting caught.
If you are struggling with bad debts then the simple solution is to get clients to pay partly or even wholly in advance or pay by standing order / direct debit, like plenty of other accountants on this forum do.
Many potential clients also want my time for less than I am willing to work for. I politely decline and concentrate on the good quality clients that are prepared to pay.
Riots (so called)
The events of last week were not "riots" as in protests or as Wiki defined.
This was naked anarchy a la Mad Max and the prepertrators could not articulate adequately why they were doing it (not that many could actually "articulate" anyway).
Not having a job, beacuse "the foreign workers stole them" or "the bankers stole their future" or not "having respect" (a two way street, I thought) makes it ok to literally kick someone to death, does it? Or rob another, after he's had his skull caved in?
I have acted for recruitment and labour providors, whose first hand experience is they can only get non UK workers to do a lot of jobs the indigenous population feel is beneath them. Also that the average non UK worker does actually have a work ethic.
Lastly, on cuts - as accountants, we should all know if income is insufficient and expenses are too high, it has to come from somewhere - in the case of Labour, borrowing. Cuts ARE needed, unless we wish to join Greece and Ireland, the US and likely Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Get real!
England = UK? I think not!
To be fair to our friends in Scotland, Wales & NI the riots were "England wide" not "UK wide".
As far as the topic goes, will HMRC now desist from using heavy handed private debt collectors in affected areas?