| A Small Business Reflection — With Heart and Honesty There’s a tension I’ve noticed more and more — a sort of pull between sympathy and frustration, between wanting to help people who struggle to find work and wanting to call out those who are simply gaming the system. On one hand, I’ve had those conversations — the ones that start casual but leave a heavy feeling in your chest. You talk to someone who wants work, who wants stability, who wants to feel useful and proud of what they can do. You talk to people who are blocked not by laziness but by a system that makes taking genuine work a risk — a risk to their benefits, their housing support, their fragile stability. And they tell you it doesn’t feel like a fresh start — it feels like walking a tightrope with nothing to catch them if they fall. (Earthly Comforts) That’s real. That’s human. I don’t have a neat solution — and neither does anyone else. But I do have empathy for that struggle. Work is about dignity, about contribution, about identity — and when the welfare system makes taking a job feel like losing security, we all lose a bit of our shared purpose as a society. But let’s be clear: there’s a huge difference between someone who wants to work but is locked out by system design, and someone who chooses to operate under the radar, earning and not paying their way. The Illegality That Undercuts Us All Cash-in-hand arrangements, undeclared earnings, avoidance of tax obligations — these are illegal. You and I both know this, and we don’t need to soften it. These aren’t harmless or grey practices; they’re tax evasion and non-compliance. That doesn’t just distort competition — it steals from the public purse, and it erodes trust in the very system that allows legitimate businesses to operate. Even if enforcement feels slow or patchy, the legal obligation remains the same. It’s deeply frustrating. When I’m navigating VAT, insurance, waste licenses, payroll, pensions, and all the other requirements that come with running a compliant business, and I see someone else undercutting illegitimately because they don’t bother with any of that, it feels like the game is rigged. And frankly, it feels like our government isn’t cracking down hard or fast enough on those behaviours. Lots of honest small business owners feel this — that the system seems to ask more and more of the compliant, while those who don’t play by the rules keep floating just below the enforcement radar. That breeds resentment. It chips away at morale. And it risks making the honest choice feel like a losing one. Where the Two Threads Meet Here’s where things get complex, and why this post isn’t just an angry rant: I have real respect for people who want to work honestly, but are discouraged by the practical realities of life — the fear of losing benefits, losing housing priority, losing day-to-day support that keeps them afloat. They aren’t avoiding work to sponge off the system. They’re managing survival. And any employer trying to do the right thing knows exactly how awkward, delicate, and emotionally complex those conversations can be. (Earthly Comforts) At the same time, there are those who aren’t stuck in that dilemma at all — who choose cash-in-hand because it benefits them financially, because they want to undercut properly-priced quotes, because they want to avoid tax and compliance, because it’s an easier short-term way to make money without the paperwork or penalties of doing it right. Those are not people I sympathise with. Those are people who have made a choice — a choice that hurts my business, my neighbours’ businesses, and the broader community we all rely on. The Cost of the Current Balance We’re in a place where: People want to work but can’t afford the risk of doing so, Honest businesses work so damn hard to comply with every rule, And those who choose to dodge rules still manage to compete, often without consequence. Meanwhile, enforcement doesn’t feel visible enough. You can feel the gap between policy and practice on the ground. You can feel the goodwill eroding — not in dramatic outbursts, but in little, invisible increments, as business owners think,“Why am I the only one playing this game honestly?” That’s a dangerous place to be. Because if we stop believing the system is fair, we start questioning the value of compliance. And when compliance stops being seen as a virtue and becomes a competitive disadvantage, we all lose. So What Happens Next? I don’t have all the answers. But I think this much is true: We need enforcement that is more visible, not just theoretical. We need policies that support people genuinely willing to work without penalising them for trying. And we need to call out those who choose under-the-radar work not with vague frustration, but with clear honesty: they’re hurting our communities, our economy, and our shared trust. There is a difference between struggling to get into work and actively avoiding the responsibilities of work. And in the long term, we need a system that recognises that difference without penalising the earnest or rewarding the evasive. In the meantime, to every small business owner who feels squeezed between those who can’t take the risk of working and those who won’t take the responsibility for working, you’re not wrong to feel the way you do. You’re just asking for a fairer game — not special treatment, not exemptions, just fairness. And that’s something worth fighting for. |
Playing Fair in an Unfair Game
Earthly Comforts 
Very true Rory. It’s everywhere- the honest businesses suffer and the dishonest ones go Scot free
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Precisely my annoyance Sadje.
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👍🏼
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