There are many complex and varied reasons why individuals vote for a particular political party. It might be upbringing, it could be personal conviction or a vague liking for a particular policy.
Generally speaking, I have found over the years that most driver trainers tend to lean towards the right of the political spectrum. This is possibly driven (sorry) in many cases by the principle that as self-employed business people, their best interests are served by a right of centre party.
However, as more and more instructors find themselves having relationships as third party contractors with local authorities, schools, colleges and other service providers, many are starting to feel that the lack of job security is a threat to their future income.
Some instructors have given up on the learner driver market to concentrate on fleet work and offender courses, only to find that following a disagreement with a contractor, they are not invited to do any further work for that contractor and their income stream dries up – rapidly.
Many self-employed instructors are not making a great deal of money. Indeed, as the MSA stated in our response to the recent Ministry of Justice consultation (full text on the MSA website): “DVSA ADIs are not highly paid and nearly all ADIs (estimates suggest in excess of 95 per cent) are self-employed. Driver training, particularly at the start of an instructor’s career, is not a well-paid profession, with many instructors’ earnings being less than the annualised minimum wage of £13,520.”
Some ADIs rely on Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and other benefits to support their families. What, I hear you ask, has this got to do with politics? Well, a review of the speech by Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of the Labour Party, to his conference included these extracts.
“In my leadership campaign I set out some ideas for how we should support small businesses and the self-employed. That’s because one in seven of the labour force now work for themselves. Some of them have been driven into it as their only response to keep an income coming in, insecure though it is. But many people like the independence and flexibility self-employment brings to their lives, the sense of being your own boss. And that’s a good thing.
“But with that independence comes insecurity and risk especially for those on the lowest and most volatile incomes. There’s no Statutory Sick Pay if they have an accident at work. There’s no Statutory Maternity Pay for women when they become pregnant They have to spend time chasing bigger firms to pay their invoices on time, so they don’t slip further into debt.
“They earn less than other workers. On average just £11,000 a year. And their incomes have been hit hardest by five years of Tory economic failure. So what are the Tories doing to help the self-employed, the entrepreneurs they claim to represent? They’re clobbering them with the tax credit cuts. And they are going to clobber them again harder as they bring in Universal Credit.”
“So I want our policy review to tackle this in a really serious way. And be reflective of what modern Britain is actually like. Labour created the welfare state as an expression of a caring society – but all too often that safety net has holes in it, people fall through it, and it is not there for the self-employed. It must be. That is the function of a universal welfare state.
“Consider opening up Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay to the self-employed so all new born children can get the same level of care from their parents.”
Food for thought, it seems to me and perhaps some of these ideas could be pursued with the current Government in order to try and make things better for all ADIs. Concepts like fairer third party contracts, with rights for the self-employed, guaranteed Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) providing protection for the self-employed when contracts change hands, should and I hope will be considered.
Be First to Comment