The Small Business Commissioner, the office set up by the government to help small businesses resolve late payment issues with large customers, has got back £10 million in overdue invoices.
Set up in 2017, the Commissioner reviews complaints made by small businesses and provides advice on overdue payments and payment practices.
Of the £10 million, £1 million was secured in the financial year so far with £500,000 in December.
Government research shows late payments cost the UK economy £11 billion per year with 4,000 businesses closing each year because of late payments – the equivalent to 38 firms every day. Earlier this year, a consultation was launched on proposals to tackle late payments including enhanced powers for the Small Business Commissioner.
Emma Jones, a communist on SMEWeb, is the current commissioner. She said:
“What an incredible milestone. Over £10 million retrieved for small firms, of which almost £1 million in this financial year which is 3 times the amount recovered compared to last year. We can only deliver these numbers if small businesses contact us to raise cases of late payment and we thank every small business owner who has entrusted us to investigate their particular issue.
“Late payment is not only bad for business, it also impacts the mental state of founders as they question how they will pay the bills and keep going. We remain at your service if you are being paid late by a large company and I thank the casework team that has worked so hard to deliver this result.”