News: COVID-19 impact: Pay delays leave freelancers in the cold-07-04-2020
Updated On: Apr 07, 2020
Freelancers are facing payment delays in view of the Covid-19 outbreak induced lockdown. While domestic payments have been delayed to 24 days from an average 19 days earlier, international payments are taking double the time than usual.
BENGALURU: Freelancers are facing payment delays in view of the Covid-19 outbreak induced lockdown. While domestic payments have been delayed to 24 days from an average 19 days earlier, international payments are taking double the time than usual, a study shared exclusively with ET by Bengaluru-based invoices and payment system for freelancers, Refrens, showed. Payments from overseas are taking 28 days, from 13 days at the end of February, it showed.
Refrens surveyed 11,000 freelancers working in consultancy roles, graphics, as software developers, designers and content creators, among others.
“There has also been a drop in new freelancing assignments, both domestic and international, by almost 60% as of the last week of March,” said Naman Sarawgi, founder of Refrens. “The momentum will only revive once the economy strengthens, which will take at least 18 months.”
Payments from clients based in the US, the UK and Australia are delayed significantly, the study showed, while clients in the UAE and Qatar have not changed payment timelines yet.
“This has also to do with the delays from the banking system due to reduced staff and technical glitches. Thankfully, we have not been facing any issue with our own payment gateway, we are able to process payments on time for our users,” Sarawgi said. Another trend is ‘part payments’, the study found. Earlier, only 12% of invoices used to be paid in instalments but that increased to up to 41%.
