Calls flooding into redundancy helpline, FSB claims

Organisation reports a 214 per cent increase in calls to its legal advice line in the Q4 2008

Call volume: The FSB has reported a significant increase in calls to its legal advice line

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has reported a 214 per cent jump in the number of calls on redundancies to its legal advice line.

Its revelation comes on the same day that the UK was officially declared to be in recession.

During the first half of last year, the FSB saw a relatively small 27 per cent increase on 2007. But in the latter part of the year, the number of calls rose 167 per cent, or almost 8,200 calls.

As a result the FSB is calling for SMEs – which have been hit just as hard as the larger firms and which also employ more than half the private sector workforce – to be given the support they need to tackle unemployment.

CRN reported earlier this month that the FSB has proposed a five-point plan that it claims could not only keep people in jobs, but create more than 400,000 new ones. Suggestions include simplifying legislation, cutting payroll taxes and investing in training, among others.

John Wright, FSB national chairman, said: ““Small businesses are being hit just as hard as big businesses in these difficult economic times as these worrying figures show. We cannot afford to lose our vibrant SME business sector.

“As we officially move into recession we must not forget that small businesses are the engine room of the economy and are actually in a key position to generate new jobs and avoid further redundancies. Small businesses are the sector to help pull us out of the recession and they need all the support they can get to do so. We call on the government to put in place measures to support small businesses, following the key policies we have identified in our Five Point Plan.”