Supporting musicians in the recession

Sadly, musicians are vulnerable to the effects of the current recession. This is perhaps particularly true of freelancers providing services which many of their clients see as an easy target when they have to cut back their own spending. Even employed teachers in schools are likely to feel the impact of reduced demand for instrumental tuition.

We can help you deal with these difficult times.

Loss of work

Our in-house legal team can help you if a client cancels an engagement or stops tuition without proper notice or paying the agreed fee instead. We will negotiate on your behalf to ensure you are paid what is owing to you.

Music teachers working in schools may find that they have their teaching hours reduced. Unfortunately, the school is likely to be entitled to do this because their contract states that the teacher is not guaranteed a minimum number of hours work. The silver lining here is perhaps that, even if on reduced hours, you are still working at the school and so well situated to benefit from increased demand for music tuition when the economy recovers.

In the meantime, we can help to ensure that you do not suffer a disproportionate cut in your work compared to your colleagues. We will negotiate with the school if you are being treated unfairly. We can also act on your behalf if you feel that that the school is discriminating unlawfully against you, on grounds of age, disability, gender, race, religious belief or sexual orientation. If legal action becomes necessary, this can be taken up under our legal expenses insurance.

ISM members can call David Abrahams, Head of Legal Services & Advocacy, on 020 7079 1208 or Caroline Aldred, Legal Services Manager, on 020 7079 1210.

Redundancy

If an employer raises the possibility of redundancy, you should contact us immediately for advice. A redundancy is a dismissal. Therefore, you potentially have a claim for unfair dismissal if there is any unfairness in the redundancy process. In law there are various procedures an employer must go through to ensure that redundancies are fair. The employer must consult with employees about the redundancies and take reasonable steps to find them alternative work. If the employer decides that compulsory redundancies are necessary, the employer must select individuals for redundancy on a fair, objective basis, such as length of service, qualifications, skills and experience. The employer may not select candidates for redundancy on unlawfully discriminatory grounds. Redundant employees are usually entitled to redundancy pay and notice under the terms of their contract.

Our legal team will help to ensure that you are fairly treated and receive your full entitlement to redundancy pay and notice monies. If necessary, the lawyers who operate our legal expenses insurance will pursue a claim on your behalf in the employment tribunal. You would not incur any legal bills for this service.

ISM Members Fund

If things become really bad, a grant from the ISM Members Fund might help. We encourage musicians in financial difficulties to approach the Fund for help even if they are not totally destitute. It is much better to address a problem by a small amount of help at an early stage rather than to allow the situation to deteriorate so far that severe measures become necessary to remedy the situation. If you would like to discuss your circumstances and how the Fund might help you informally before making an application, please contact me. We treat all enquiries to the Fund in strict confidence.

Contact Caroline Aldred on 020 8788 3799 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Welfare benefits

We may also be able to signpost you to welfare benefits for which you qualify. Even if you are self-employed (and so have not paid Class 1 National Insurance), if your income has fallen to very low levels, you may be eligible for jobseeker’s allowance (of £64.30 per week) or income support. If you are aged 60 or more, you may qualify for pension credit. This guarantees you an income of £130 per week, or £198 for couples. Even at higher levels of income, you may still be entitled for working or child tax credits, especially if you have children. For example, someone working more than 16 hours per week for £15,000pa with a non-working partner and two children is entitled to £5,419pa of tax credits. If they earned £25,000pa they would still qualify for a small amount of tax credits. If you have a ‘limited capability for work’ because of ill health or a disability, you may be eligible for employment and support allowance, even if you are self-employed.

There are a number of online ready reckoners which you can use to make a preliminary assessment of whether you are eligible for these benefits:

• visit the government's Benefits Adviser site to explore all your benefit options
• for information on tax credits, go to HMRC's dedicated site
• for guidance on Pension Credit, visit the Department for Work and Pensions' Pension Service page

Debts

For people struggling with heavy debts, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service offers guidance on their website and advice over the telephone (0800 138 1111) or by email. Payplan offers a similar online and telephone service (0800 716239). These organisations advise people on how best to use whatever income they have available after essential living expenses to deal with their creditors. They help them negotiate with creditors to freeze interest charges and to accept lower monthly repayments. In extreme cases, they guide debtors through bankruptcy or IVA proceedings.

The ISM Members Fund can put Fund beneficiaries in touch with a money adviser who specialises in advising musicians. This adviser can negotiate with their creditors on their behalf. The Fund pays the fee for this service.

Budgeting

Even if you do not have large debts, you may need to adjust your spending if your income falls. For help with this, there are personal budget ready reckoners, such as one produced by the Financial Services Authority. Alternatively, you could download the ISM Members Fund application form and use this to calculate your income and outgoings in order to see by how much and where you should cut your expenditure. You can find tips on how to make your money go further on the Low Budget Living website.

Networking

When you have no or little work it is particularly important to keep in touch with fellow professionals. ISM seminars and local events provide useful networking opportunities. Attending these may open paths to new work. It will also help you to keep abreast of new developments in the music world.

Coping with stress

Remember the ISM’s telephone counselling helpline, paid for by the Members Fund. This service is available 24 hours a day every day of the year to our members and their families. At the other end of the line, there is always a trained counsellor ready to listen to your worries.

ISM members can call our counselling helpline: 0117 934 0185

More generally, there are ways of combating the anxiety and stress of having little or no work. Keep to a regular routine, with time allocated to looking for work and other professional activities as well as to leisure activities. Take exercise. Walking rather than taking the car or bus saves money as well. Eat healthily.

Broadening your horizons

Finally, a period when business is slow may be a useful opportunity to consider expanding your work portfolio into new areas. There may be potential opportunities outside your usual areas of work. For example, you might decide to join with colleagues to form an ensemble which performs at private functions, such as weddings. You might decide to supplement your income with some private teaching. You might investigate moving into adult or community education or working as a musician in the health sector. There are a number of websites (including our own and Creative and Cultural Skills) which offer ideas and valuable advice on how to top up your income with new types of musical work.

Remember also that you may have skills which could be used in non-musical activities. For example, your music teaching experience could be used in teaching other subjects. Your singing skills might be used in speech and drama work.

Innovative ventures might well prove so successful that, when the green shoots eventually appear, you find yourself in a stronger position than you would otherwise have been. In the meantime, we are here to help and advise you.