Newbie - do contracts ever fall through?

[Scruff]

With the IR35 Legislation coming into play w.e.f. 5 April 2021, if the role that has been offered to you is currently "outside IR35" then I would consider doing an income calculation inside and outside. Compare the 2, and accept that you will be indide w.e.f 6 April, 2021.

Personally, I would take the permie role - Gov UK have cocked the IT Industry into a bucket of Tulip.

[DimPrawn]

Personally, I would take the permie role - Gov UK have cocked the IT Industry into a bucket of Tulip.

Very much the above.

I don't think we've had such a small business / IT contractor unfriendly govt since Bliar/Brown and Dawn Primarolo (the original Dim Prawn) were calling the shots.

[dsc]

In the current climate there's no guarantees (not that there ever was in contracting anyway, but now more then ever things change so quickly that don't be surprised if you get canned after a day for some random reason), so I'd just take the perm role and wait it out for a year. Of course next year IR35 reforms kick in in April and I reckon at that point the economy will be so buggered after Covid and Brexit that they will tax every living contractor in the UK just to patch things up, so expect bugger all contracts then as well.

[tl97]

We don’t know your full circumstances. Do you have enough savings if the contract falls through? Can you continue to afford where you live?

A lot of the replies here have been negative, and rightly so given the current crisis. But if you’re young and don’t have anything to lose, contracting can be a great risk to take with a huge amount to gain and experience. It can also at times be brutal, which is why you need to weigh it up in the current circumstances. Your permanent job doesn’t sound particularly stable either at the moment.