HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has been slated over its handling of a worker back-pay row, which threatens to have a crippling effect on a number of charities.
Earlier this month, the Government announced the creation of a Social Care Compliance Scheme (SCCS), which has been set up to deal with the fall-out of a change in policy, which means that sleep-in shift workers are covered by minimum wage legislation.
This has left various organisations – including charities such as Mencap, which provide care overnight – facing a bill of up to £400million in back pay.
While the SCCS is ostensibly a voluntary initiative, concerns had already been raised relating to remarks by the Government which indicated that those who don’t sign up could be penalised.
Now there has been fresh controversy, after the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) expressed concerns that many of its members had received what have been described as “ultimatum” letters from the tax authority.
The correspondence gives organisations 30 days to decide if they want to sign up to the SCCS.
VODG’s chairman, Steve Scown, said: “There are too many unresolved questions for providers to make an informed decision as to whether to join [the] Government’s compliance scheme.
“In the absence of answers, and funding to cover the back pay bill, HMRC’s approach and the timeframe they are imposing is unhelpful to a sector that is at full stretch financially.”
Such is the uncertainty, VODG has felt compelled to join forces with a number of other umbrella bodies to compile a list of questions which it believes that organisations need answers to before they can decide whether to join.
