Aug
17
This article about HIPs assessors has got me thinking.
This is the quote from a HIPs assessor that caught my eye:
“There was plenty of talk about the potential to make plenty of money, but there were no guarantees,” she said.
Nonetheless, there is only so long she will be able to wait.
“If the work doesn’t come in, then I will really have to re-think whether I can stick with this,” she said.
“I can afford to wait another month or so but there are an awful lot of people who gave up their jobs in June (when the packs were initially due to come in) and aren’t in that position.”
When the government delayed HIPS until August, it caused major problems for all those HIPs assessors who had given up good jobs and spent a fortune on their training.
The trouble for them is that four bedroom houses only form 17 percent of the market – there just isn’t enough work for them at the moment. They can’t wait another three or four months until the government extended the scheme to three bedroom houses. They would run out of cash.
Running out of cash, and severely out of pocket from the training costs, the almost redundant HIPs assessors would have been forced to look for work elsewhere. Their numbers would have dwindled and the poor morale and prospects would have deterred new assessors from entering the industry.
The government must have been convinced by the Association for Home Information Providers that this delay put the whole home information pack scheme at risk.
So was the government forced to extend the HIPs scheme to three bed homes early? It looks very much like it.
