INTERPRET, Winter 2012 / Spring Interpret. The Newsletter of Sheffield Community Access & Interpreting Service

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1 Interpret The Newsletter of Sheffield Community Access & Interpreting Service Winter 2012 / Spring 2013 Hello and welcome to the SCAIS Interpreter newsletter. This will be our last paper-based edition. Please ensure you have given us an up-todate address for you in order that we can keep you informed in future. Feedback, comments and questions are always welcome. Call us on or need to know about. Newsletter - Going Digital This will be the last paper-based edition of Interpret as we are moving to a digital format. Future editions of our newsletter will be distributed via only. Please ensure that the address we hold for you is up-to-date. You can do this over the phone, or via sheffieldscais@nhs.net This will enable you to receive the latest news on SCAIS and any changes you Sending the newsletter electronically means that we will be able to reduce the amount of paper we use and become a more environmentally friendly service. If you feel you still need a paper copy of the newsletter please contact us and we will arrange this. Finance Contact Details The finance section of SCAIS now has contact details that you can use to contact the finance team directly about your payments. Telephone Sheffield.scaisfinance@nhs.net Fax Please use these contact details when you have a finance query. This will help us to keep the admin. telephone lines open to take requests for sessions. 1

2 URGENT: Financial Year End There will be huge changes to the NHS from April 2013, with many services disbanded or moved to different providers. This means that it will be very difficult to get payment from providers for sessions undertaken before 1st April if you hand your forms in too close to this date. The service may no longer exist for us to bill. It is therefore imperative that you hand all your forms in as soon as possible. Please do not hand all of your forms too close to this date, because it will not leave enough time to raise and send invoices before the year-end deadlines. Early Starts If you arrive early for a session, and the Service Provider requests that you start interpreting before the scheduled time of session, you must change the Time of Session section on the claim-form to the earlier time, and get the service provider to sign or initial this change. If this part of the form is unchanged, and if the Service Provider has not initialled this change, we cannot pay you for the early start. We pay from the time entered in the Time of Session section of your claim form, NOT from the Time Interpreter Attended section. Claim Forms Unfortunately, we have been receiving many incomplete claim forms, which delays payment and inconveniences SCAIS and Service Providers. Please remember to complete your claim forms in full, including the time you arrived at the session, your signature and the signature of the Service Provider. If you do not have the form specific to the session you are attending, use a blank SCAIS form (copy included on back page) and include as much information as possible including your name, the name of the Service Provider etc. Failure to complete enough information may result in return of the form, and in some cases we will not be able to ascertain that you completed the session. Expense Claims If you are claiming for expenses, remember to include this on the form before the Service Provider signs the form they are then authorising payment for your fees and expenses. We cannot process your claims for parking or bus-ticket expenses unless a copy of the ticket is attached to your claim form. If we do not receive tickets after a month we will be obliged to process your claim without expenses, in order to issue a prompt invoice to the Service Provider. Return of Forms Forms should be returned within two weeks of the session taking place. Payment is likely to be delayed if we receive the form late, and Service Providers are more likely to query payment. 2

3 Taxis Taxis must not be used in normal working hours unless you have obtained permission from us beforehand. If you feel you need to use a taxi, please contact SCAIS and we will ask for authorisation. Please ask in good time, not on the same day as the session (except in cases of unavoidable emergency) Contacting SCAIS The office is fully staffed between 9.30AM and 4PM, so it is best to call us between these hours. Feel free to ring us and see if we have any sessions available, but please do not do this more than once a day We are aware of the expense of ringing the 0845 number and we are planning to release an 0114 number on which we can be contacted once the telephone system at our new office has stabilised. Please bear with us in the meantime. Parking at a G.P Surgery As you may be aware, a G.P Surgery recently adopted a new car parking system making parking for visitors and interpreters much more restricted unless they are dropped off by a third party. This system has quite heavy fines for overstaying the allowed time and this has caused problems for interpreters. We have now had the following communication from the surgery: Interpreters coming to the medical centre to provide a service for our patients will now be able to park in our car park. They will need to advise the reception staff, and input their registration number into the computer so that they do not incur a charge. Hope this information is useful to you. 3

4 SCAIS Interpreters, Income Tax and National Insurance As a freelance interpreter for SCAIS you are officially self-employed. This means that SCAIS is not considered your employer: we do not issue you a P60, nor do we arrange for payment of your income tax. You must therefore be registered with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as self employed, and supply them with tax returns each year to show how much you have earned. If you have not yet registered, it is very easy to do. Steps to take: 1. Register as Self Employed with HMRC here: 2. Each year (or more often) complete self assessment forms to tell HMRC how much you have earned for the year. The form to complete is held here: If you need help completing the form: for written instructions Self assessment helpline: for someone to talk to It is important that you keep records of your income and expenses to complete the form accurately. But please ask SCAIS if you need any additional information. What type of Tax do I pay? Income Tax Income tax is deductable from your profits. Your profits are your earnings minus your expenses. So if you received 11,000 from SCAIS for , of which 1000 was for expenses, only 10,000 is taxable. Will I definitely have to pay income Tax? No. At the time of writing (August 2012), anyone earning less than 8105 (after deducting expenses) should not be liable to pay income tax. This means that if your annual income falls below this amount, you should not have to pay tax. However, you should still complete a tax return. 4

5 SCAIS Interpreters, Income Tax and National Insurance Continued National Insurance National Insurance contributions entitle you to a state pension at retirement, and other benefits. If you are on low income, you will probably be exempt from paying national insurance. However, others may be required to pay 2.65 a week and 9 per cent of any profits over 7605 (as of 14/8/2012). Please remember this figure is for profits your total income minus your expenses. So even if you receive over this amount, you can deduct the money you have had to pay for bus tickets etc. You can offset your travel expenses against the tax and national insurance issued to you. Up to 40 pence per mile can be offset against your tax deductions: so if you are paid XX pence per mile, you can claim an additional XX pence deduction per mile from your national insurance contributions. For more information, have a look at the HMRC Website, where there is advice on possible exemptions, amounts you are likely to be taxed, and other useful information. We recommend that you have a good look around the site, as it should answer all of your questions. Pregnancy Some sessions are not suitable for interpreters who are pregnant. We will always try to mention this at the time we ring you but it is also useful if you are able to inform us if you are pregnant. Visiting SCAIS If you need to pop into the office for any reason, please report to reception on arrival. For security and health & safety purposes all visitors MUST sign in at reception. If you do not need to come up to the office you can also leave your claim forms at reception as we now have a locked box specifically for this purpose. If you are booked for a home visit please meet the service provider outside the house or alternatively we can arrange for you to meet them at a nearby landmark. Please do not go inside the house alone as you will not be insured and are putting yourself at risk. 5

6 Positive Feedback A big thank you from a G.P Surgery to Kurdish Badinani interpreter for walking 4.5 miles in the snow to attend a session! Thanks to Tamil interpreter from a G.P surgery for some fantastic work with their counsellor. A Mental Health Centre complimented Tigrinya/Amharic interpreter on her professionalism and find her a pleasure to work with. A Mental Health Unit found Czech/Slovak interpreter very helpful A Health Visitor said Nepali interpreter is very good Homeless Charity said Mandarin/Cantonese interpreter did a really good job and handled a very difficult situation well A counsellor commented that BSL interpreter is brilliant and very competant at what she does A Mental Health Service commented that Mandarin/Cantonese interpreter did a very good job. Well done and thank you to all of our interpreters who work so hard every day to assist the people of South Yorkshire. Follow-on Appointments If the service provider or the client would like to request the same interpreter for a follow-on appointment, they can do this but must inform our staff when making the booking. They may decide at the end of the appointment to check with you whether they are free for the next appointment. This is fine, but please be aware that this does NOT constitute a firm booking from SCAIS until you have confirmation and a job number from us. You may wish, at your own risk, to hold that diary slot for a short time but you will be encouraged to accept work in the order it is requested with SCAIS. Please note that if you attend a session without a job number from SCAIS we will not be able to issue one retrospectively as this violates the terms of our insurance. 6

7 Staff Changes Mandeep Singh Jabbal started with us in October. He is our new modern apprentice. He s a Manchester United supporter who enjoys Thai boxing, juggling and chess (but not all at the same time). He also likes listening to drum & bass, indie and trance music. Massive congratulations to Vicky Smith who got married in June last year to her partner, Adam. And more congratulations to Paul Baxter and wife Marie who have announced they are expecting their first child in June and to Ben Lake and wife Mags who are having their second child, a sister for little Sam. Jack Lee finished his apprenticeship with us in October but has since returned to work for SCAIS in a temporary capacity as an Admin. and Bookings Assistant. We ve very glad to have him back, despite his constant talk about wrestling. A Secure Unit Please be aware that a secure unit is a locked low secure forensic unit. Interpreters are required to hand over their belongings and are issued a panic alarm on arrival at reception. If you feel unable to undertake sessions in this sort of environment please inform us so that we can refrain from offering you such work. If you are running late, need to check something about a session or have any problems please call SCAIS, not the service provider. We need to be kept fully informed about what is happening with each session and if you and the service provider have agreed something that is not communicated to SCAIS this may harm your payments. Thank you. 7