Bureaucracy

Half a days work this afternoon.

I do casual work, either for local colleges or private groups.  The council run colleges are a nightmare of paperwork and bureaucracy.  While it means your tax gets paid and al the admin done, it can take tow or three months to get paid.  Small wonder that many private organisations just do it all cash in hand - one may even wonder if many of the employees, who only probably earn a couple of hundred a year, bother to go through all the official hoops to declare their earnings.  That would also mean they're probably not declaring their earnings against any benefits they receive.

Personally I run a self employed photography business and lump these cash earnings into this self employment, but for just these earnings it wouldn't be worth my time, or come to that the tax offices time, to process these small amounts.

The government should recognise these small scale earnings and allow them to be declared and duly ignored.  That would mean they're legitimate so that when (if) they grow into a reasonable part time job, they can be merged into the tax system without the earner having to worry about their previous undeclared earnings.  It will always be difficult and arbitrary to set the limits for amounts to be ignored, but if it's not an accepted derogation of the system, these earnings remain 'black' and encourage individuals to remain outside the mainstream system - and to continue claiming undue amounts of benefits after they've finished needing them.  It also removes a fairly reasonable excuse when people are found cheating on a very small scale.