Petition · past parliament
Establish penalties against companies for systematic late payment of invoices
Closed
2,061 signatures
What the petition asks
Freelancers make up 15% of the UK workforce, yet there has been little change in legislation to support this shift. In particular the lack of appropriate legislation around payment terms gives freelancers little practical power to ensure terms are enforced - resulting in serious cash flow issues.
A small survey of freelancers (97 people) found that everyone had experienced late payment and 37.5% had to wait over 6 months to be paid - some people were never paid. Companies should simply not be allowed to operate like this.
Options currently available include taking a company to small claims court, which is costly & time consuming, and late payment fines which are an inadequate solution as again require the invoice to at some point be paid - and don't fix cash flow issues.
Options currently available include taking a company to small claims court, which is costly & time consuming, and late payment fines which are an inadequate solution as again require the invoice to at some point be paid - and don't fix cash flow issues.
Timeline
| 13 Sep 2018 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 13 Mar 2019 | Closed to new signatures |
Key facts
Signatures
2,061
Status
Closed
Opened
13 Sep 2018
Closed
13 Mar 2019
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.