If you are a recent visitor to this site you may well be unfamiliar the above term.
In brief it is reference to the cash driven process by which the LSC attempt to reduce firm’s Standard Monthly Payments (SMP). It was coined before the “settlement deed” which established the “reconciliation protocol” to which contract payments are currently subject.
We have had a rash of queries on this front and (subject to LSC consistency in the spreadsheets they use) have devised an Excel workbook of our own to help you assess your options, and frame “negotiations”. If you are facing a reduction, savage or otherwise, in your SMP do get in touch – haven’t time to outline the detail today sorry.
What this does show however is that under the “protocol” you can end up trapped with a reduced SMP for a very long time indeed, 18 months on one we have projected this morning. In brief you cannot seek an increase until you are at 110%, i.e. 10% above payments received in the last 12 months. This is significantly more difficult that you might, at first sight, think.
Why can’t firms simply be paid the total value reported in the previous month and so avoid all this hassle?