Only 54% of all invoices sent by UK freelancers & small businesses in the past 18 months were paid on time (FreeAgent 2020)
Invoices are paid on average 23 days past contractual terms. (SBC / underpinned 2019)
Nearly a third of people (27%) experienced delays in payment of between two and six months with a further 35 per cent waiting more than a year before being paid (IPSE, 2019)
The UK SME late payment debt has almost doubled in the last two years to £23.4 billion from £13 billion owed in 2018 (payUK)
The average invoice to creative SMEs is worth £38,137, meaning that late payments leave the industry £1.1bn out of pocket at any given time (Market Finance, 2019)
Half of self-employed people have completed work they were never paid for, 61% of those aged 18-34 have not been paid for work, compared to 39% of those over 55.
But does it really matter, or is it just something we have to deal with?
