Have a late payment with a large company? Contact us. 

One of the key functions of the Office of the Small Business Commissioner is to investigate cases of late payment on behalf of small firms. This week’s post introduces the casework team and when and how you can contact them. 

If small businesses are struggling to get paid by larger companies (defined as those with 50+ employees), you can get free support where we will: 

• Investigate the case by contacting the company against which the complaint is being made to ask them to settle payment 

• Signpost cases to related organisations if we can’t help. This relates to construction cases, which are referred to the RICS Arbitration Service, and cases relating to late payment from a public sector client which are referred to the Public Payment Review Service that sits in Cabinet Office. 

By way of an average month of activity, in July, the team handled 56 cases and recovered over £5,000 for small businesses. The top sectors for enquiries were; Construction and Engineering, Consultancy, and Technology. The largest number of cases were from London, followed by the South East and North West. 

The people delivering this valuable work are Ryan, who oversees operations, Isobel who is Casework Manager, and Amanda. (shown above!) 

Although we are on hand to sort cases, we want to defer cases from needing to be raised so are working with trade bodies and associations to deliver guidance on how to get contracting right in order to avoid delays or disputes when it comes to getting paid. One example of this is working with the IT industry as we have seen evidence that IT contractors will define deliverables in a language that may not be completely understood by finance teams who then question payments after the work is complete. 

In many instances, the explanation for late payment is down to process. This week we had a call with a large company who were apologetic that cases had been made against them and explained the glitch had been caused by a move to a new IT system. 

This is where guides, like this one from Intuit, are helpful for companies who want support on how to speed up payment; from identifying SMEs in the supply chain, through to presenting data to Finance Heads on why paying on time is the right thing to do. 

The casework team is on hand to help. If you want to raise a case, please make contact and we will do what we can to get you to a point of resolution.