Important for all MIPs! Please read.

Monsoon

Following on from this thread, there was a discussion on a group Consumer Credit Licence for AAT MIPs.

If you are a MIP, you need this. You might not know that you need it, but unless you are one of the lucky few who get paid on time, every time, you need this.

Dean explains it in the linked thread

deanshepherd wrote: »

The rule is actually that you are not allowed to offer credit terms exceeding 3 months without having a consumer credit licence which is very costly.

Anyone billing annually but allowing their clients to pay monthly is at risk of default if at any time your client is more than 3 months payments in arrears.

I would wager there are a lot of people in this position, particularly after the first invoice is raised.

ICAEW and ACCA have group consumer credit licenses so automatically cover every member.

I brought this to the attention of the AAT who chose to [take] no action.

I then emailed the AAT and today received an email.

Monsoon wrote: »

Update:

I have received the following reply from the AAT:

Thanks for the email. There is currently a discussion about a group licence for our members in practice. At this stage no decision has been made if it will be pursued. If we do decide to pursue this it will be advertised to our members in practice.


This is an important decision and any MIP who has people who pay late (that probably means all of us!) should let the AAT know they really want this to be approved.

Please tell the AAT that you support the approval of a group CCL. A quick email to membershipsupport@aat.org.uk is all that is needed.

This is your professional body and you pay your fees and they work for you. Please take a minute to do this.

Thank you.

jamesm96

Done. And thanks for the extremely useful summary of the situation!

burg

Done

Newbie

done

Monsoon

Thanks guys

Natsmomma

Done

This will benefit us all. Thanks for bringing it to our attention Monsoon.

anniem

Quite shocked at this. Email sent to membership support!

Chubble69

Also really shocked at this - E-mail sent tonight!!
Monsoon - I think an article by you on this would be good for the next technician Magazine.... however somehow i do not feel it would actually get included!

Monsoon

Chubble69 wrote: »

Also really shocked at this - E-mail sent tonight!!
Monsoon - I think an article by you on this would be good for the next technician Magazine.... however somehow i do not feel it would actually get included!

Oh, good thinking!

I feel a personal blog post coming on

JodieR

done

Fingersan

Done.... better late than never!

Monsoon

Thanks guys.... And...


BUMP!

pirate

Done

StuartW

Hi all,

Having fed back to the Members in Practice team regarding this thread, below there's an update from them regarding the issues raised:

"Thank you for your comments and emails regarding a Group Consumer Credit Licence (Group Licence).

"In 2009, we investigated the feasibility of the AAT obtaining a Group Licence. We canvassed the opinions of MIPs by including an article in The Professional. Only a handful of MIPs indicated an interest at that time, which meant that it was cheaper for those MIPs to obtain their own Consumer Credit Licence, rather than for AAT to obtain a Group Licence and pass on the costs to the minority of MIPs who felt that they needed a Consumer Credit Licence.

"In addition to the fee payable to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) there would also have been the cost to AAT of operating the Group Licence, whereby to satisfy the OFT’s requirements the AAT would have been required to carry out 'fit and proper' tests on all MIPs covered by the Group Licence.

"It is our understanding that the overwhelming majority of MIPs do not need to have a Consumer Credit Licence. However, we are checking our understanding of the requirements with the OFT and taking legal advice.

"Once we have clarified our understanding of the requirements of the Consumer Credit Act we will again canvass views by inviting MIPs to determine whether or not they actually need a Consumer Credit Licence, and if so, to express an interest in obtaining a Group Licence."

Monsoon

Thanks for the feedback Stuart.

One thing I would ask is that, when they canvas views from MIPs, that they ask not in terms of "do you want a Group CCL" which most people will probably ignore or not think is relevant, but in terms of "do you offer payment terms [detail terms that require CCL here]"

As I recall, when they last canvassed, Dean said it was hard to notice and thus low response.

I look forward to the follow up to this

deanshepherd

^^Absolutely. The last 'canvassing' was a joke and I lost a big chunk of respect for the AAT at that point.

I would also be interesting in re-reading the article that Stuart mentioned if anyone has a link? (Or has retained that copy of the magazine).

LynWest

Thanks Monsoon for bringing this to our attention.

I also agree with your comment re canvassing. If i was asked do i want to chip in for a group CCL i would most probably think that doesn't apply to me. However, when you explained about offering monthly terms to clients, i'm kind of thinking poo, i think i definately need one of those!