DID you know FACT – Rise in self-employment

Some interesting facts have been publicised around the topic of self-employment.

It appears that the number of people trading as self-employed has increased significantly in recent years. Statistics now show 4.5 million people as self employed, an increase of 650,000 since 2008. The Coalition government is of course keen to promote news of the drop in unemployment figures, but could the rise in self-employment be the real driving force? The questions being explored relate to whether this change relates to changes in the UK economy or indeed other factors. Interestingly, over 70% of those entering self-employment are over 50 years of age, suggesting that people could be hanging up their employment shoes and opting for self-employment instead of retirement. Of course, this brings concerns for the future of pensions as currently approx 52% of employees contribute to a pension compared to only 31% of self-employed.