We are acutely aware of the plight of recently qualified ADIs and PDIs who will not benefit from the new grant for the self employed and feel the need for another fight.  Our Chair Lynne Barrie has today sent the following letter to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak.  Our thanks to member Gary Fossey for his help with this.  The text of the letter is as follows –

Dear Chancellor

ADINJC RESPONSE TO COVID-19 SUPPORT MEASURES FOR THE SELF EMPLOYED

I am writing to you as Chair of the ADINJC (Approved Driving Instructors National Joint Council) which is one of the leading national driving instructor associations in the UK with a membership of 8,000 driving instructors and rider trainers, the profession as a whole having 40,000 government licensed individuals.

As you are well aware from the introduction to your recent statement, where you specifically referred to driving instructors, the vast majority of driving instructors are self employed individuals.

We see your announcement as very welcome for most driving instructors, it’s a safety net for our profession and we welcome the much-awaited news. It continues to be a most worrying time for driving instructors, along with the majority of the self employed, and this will help to support many through this unprecedented crisis. However, it will be a challenge for many of them to survive until June when the money comes through and new instructors will not be able to claim.

I think it would be true to say that the measures are a pass, but only just.

The measures announced are very welcome for instructors who’ve been in business for several years. However, a number of instructors, many of whom were encouraged into the profession by the Government via the DVSA changing the  qualification procedure in December 2017 with the objective of (to quote the then Under Secretary of State for Transport, Jesse Norman MP) “improving completion rates”, became self employed from 2018 and will not be able to claim.

Taking into account costs associated with training, up to £2,500, overheads, the vast majority starting as a franchisee with a national driving school who charge around £200 per week including car, and the time taken to build a business, the first year or so net income is likely to be low. For example, one instructor reported a £4,500 net loss in their FY2018/19 return and another, with a 14 year old child, used most of their redundancy money to train, set up in business and to live on resulting in no net income from their business until late 2019.   Another who taught in a primary school for 20 years, ending up as deputy headmaster, having paid into the system for all that time.  Started his new career as a driving instructor in September 2019 so is not eligible for the grant.

Whilst we acknowledge it’s challenging to design measures which encompass 100% of people, it’s regrettable there isn’t a procedure, maybe verification of evidence from government agencies such as DVSA, specialist vehicle or franchise receipts, for such self employed individuals to receive a grant based on HMRC’s knowledge of net income within individual industries, such as currently used for tax inspection purposes.

We would, respectfully, in the interests of ensuring that such self employed individuals are not inadvertently “forgotten” and “left…behind“, implore you to investigate any options which would meet their, often desperate, need to pay bills and put food on their family’s table whilst maintaining the integrity of the public purse?

We are happy to liaise with you or your team to discuss what measures could help in this respect and we are, as a member of NASP, a trusted advisor and Tier One consultative stakeholder of DVSA and DfT and have been working closely with them to offer guidance and manage any communication with the profession.

Yours faithfully

Lynne Barrie MA, DVSA ADI (Car)
Chair ADINJC

 

Could we ask you to consider another letter to your own MP.  Your own situation may have changed slightly for the better, but your support for the new entrants to the industry would be much appreciated.  They are the new generation of ADIs, we need people coming in to regenerate the industry, new talent and new ways of thinking and working.  They are the future of the industry, so please let’s work together and get behind them.

 

 

 

 

Whilst our newsflashes are normally a benefit of membership of the ADINJC, during this national emergency we want to share information as widely as possible, so please feel free to pass this on.  We are stronger together.

 

The NJC continues to be dedicated to help you in these challenging times and we hope you and your loved ones stay safe and healthy.  Please feel free to contact us for help and support.

 

ADINJC’s helpline is 0800 8202 444

The Secretary’s number is 07855 453414

You can find the latest NASP guidelines on Coronavirus here.

HMRC Helpline:  0800 0159 559
Citizens Advice Bureau – https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/health/coronavirus-what-it-means-for-you/

You can sign up to receive Government updates on Coronavirus relating to driving tests here.

The ADINJC is a national association run by ADIs on a not-for-profit basis.  We work tirelessly to inform, represent and support our members, and to promote the interests of our profession.