With Budget Day around the corner speculation is rife on what will be included, and what will not. The wait will soon be over but in the meantime Olivia Spruce, Director of the Payroll Compliance Authority (PCA), shares her views on a key area that needs addressing on 30th October.

Olivia Spruce, CEO of healthcare recruitment firm Positive Healthcare and PCA Director, says:

"The new Labour government's first budget is one of the most anticipated for a very long time. With the Health Secretary having just announced a rallying cry to the public and NHS to help 'fix the NHS' I would hope to see measures announced that make a significant impact on the NHS and associated staffing. There's no question that the NHS requires significant further funding to enter a new dawn of Healthcare, but also from an immediate perspective to fix a service in crisis. The NHS is on the precipice of being totally overwhelmed as a direct result of a lack of funding and a workforce emergency which, if it remains unaddressed, will set the nation up to face the worst winter NHS crisis. Immediate financial support is needed.

"To reduce the waiting lists, which are at an historic high, this will require more agency staff to plug resourcing gaps alongside the NHS bank staff. As well as the cost of much-needed agency staff, this situation opens up another drain on public funds through tax evasion activities carried out by a number of unscrupulous payroll suppliers, known as umbrella companies.

"NHS locum workers, therefore, need to be far more aware of the tax evasive methods of pay that are in operation in this unregulated market so they don't unwittingly become part of a scheme. Recruitment professionals do all they can to ensure that any umbrella companies engaged by these healthcare workers are compliant, however, they can be very hard to identify and recruiters are not financial experts.

"NHS locum workers need to be vigilant and if they are made a particularly attractive payment offer by an umbrella firm, particularly one that has no sector accreditation, it should be a red flag to them that it is likely too good to be true and that, if they take it, they risk an unpaid tax bill from HMRC down the line.

"If the Labour government is to be successful in its first term and wish to be in a strong position for re-election in five years' time, it is vital that this budget gives our highly valued NHS public service the lifeline it needs this winter. Otherwise, the repeated assertions that the NHS is 'broken' and that this government will 'fix it' become merely rhetoric."