At Community we’re a proud champion of the five million strong self-employed and freelance community across the UK. For many people, self-employment is the answer to finding a good work-life balance. It can be extremely rewarding, but it can also mean longer hours, less pay, and more worry about your finances. We want to help you.
We have a range of member benefits which help to support self-employed and freelance workers.
Most importantly, we want to ensure your voices are heard by building and strengthening our collective voice. Being a part of Community brings with it the solidarity that comes with joining forces with thousands of others and campaigning together on issues that affect you. We bring self-employed people together through regular meetings and events to share and discuss experiences and to shape the unions policy, political and lobbying agenda for the self-employed. It is this collective action that draws many self-employed people to Community.
What type of self-employed person can join?
Any self-employed person can join our union and be part of the collective voice for the self-employed. Whether you’re self-employed full time or part time, whether you’re a freelancer, sole trader or run as a limited company or a sub-contractor. Whoever you are, whatever your industry and however you work, you’re welcome to join us.
Want to learn more? Take a look at five reasons why you need us in your corner below.
Community will ensure your voices are heard not only through the next few weeks and months, but in the months and years ahead. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the self-employed and freelancers need someone in their corner to make sure they aren't left behind.
We are a proud campaigning union and the strength of our membership paired with our political affiliations means we can take the issues you care about and make sure they're heard across the UK at every level.
You may be able to claim expenses as a tax relief if you are self-employed such as office costs, travel costs and financial costs, which can be claimed through your self-assessment tax return.
A Self-Assessment tax return can appear daunting, especially if you haven’t done one before. Community advisors can help you with your tax returns including information on when you need to register, what expenses you can claim, what sections to fill out and how to pay your final tax bill.
We've been helping our members to navigate difficult situations at work for many years. Advice and representation at work are the cornerstone of our service offering, and as a part of Community, you have access to all our experience and expertise. From discrimination to client relations, our legal experts are here to help.
Not being paid on time and not knowing when you will be paid is one of the biggest issues impacting the self-employed. There is currently £23.4bn of outstanding debt to small businesses, and will be on the rise due to the pandemic.
Community can help recover the money you are owed, help with debt recovery claims, and contact clients asking them to pay up. Working with our members we have found 99% of the time clients pay up when they hear from the union.
We know one of the greatest difficulties for freelancers and self-employed is access to learning and up-skilling and opportunities. We offer self-paced, online training to help you sharpen and develop your skills in a flexible way.
We’ve created specific guidance for self-employed people, take a look here.
