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Self-employed may have to wait two months for crisis cash
http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=35601
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Author:  StuartW [ Thu Mar 26, 2020 3:31 am ]
Post subject:  Self-employed may have to wait two months for crisis cash

This isn't looking so good :sad:

But I assume it just means that payment will merely be delayed rather than that anyone wouldn't be eligible until the end of May.

And it also states that the cut off point will be £30k earnings (profit) or thereabouts. Which certainly won't trouble me, nor, I suspect, the vast majority of drivers. But if this is correct then if you earned £29k last year then you'll get the payouts, but if you earned £31k then you wouldn't get a penny.

But probably no point in over-speculating until the chancellor makes his statement later today :?


Self-employed workers will need to wait until end of MAY to get emergency coronavirus cash

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11256814/ ... ronavirus/

MILLIONS of struggling self-employed workers will have to wait until the end of May to get emergency wages from the government.

Rishi Sunak will reveal today the tough news that coronavirus bailout cash won’t be available for them for at least eight further weeks.

In a bid to prioritise the nation’s most needy, The Sun can also reveal the Chancellor will target the emergency help at low and middle earners only.

The bitter sweet pill comes as Mr Sunak unveils his long-awaited package of support for the nation’s own bosses.

An eligibility cap is expected to be set at around the median income level - £30,353 last year - meaning it will include cleaners, childminders and cab drivers but not high earning professions like lawyers or tech programmers.

One likely option being studied last night is to use January’s tax return for the financial year 2018-19 as the new scheme’s benchmark.

It comes a week after the Treasury's boss bailed out employees by pledging to pay 80 per cent of their wages up to £2,500 a month to stop them being laid off.

But Downing Street sources last night said the same flat offer to fund four fifths of the self-employed workers' income will not be replicated for them.

There were fears in the Treasury that Boris Johnson had “talked up” Mr Sunak’s package too much while answering MPs’ questions yesterday.

The Prime Minister told the Commons that it was his “desire to get parity of support” between the employed and self-employed.

But Downing Street sources instead said Mr Sunak’s guiding principle was “fairness” instead of parity.

One government figure said: “No matter how we do this, there will be people who fall through the gap. What matters most is we get money to those who need it the most as quickly as we can”.

Better off earners are instead judged to have nest eggs tucked away that they can delve into for short-term support.

Five million Brits - almost one in six of the workforce - work for themselves.

Some 1.7 million of them have already been left out of pocket by the crisis, the Resolution Foundation think-tank warned yesterday.

But until the brand new system is up and running, they will be asked to go on Universal Credit.

The Chancellor will also highlight how he last week hiked the job support element of the benefit to £94 a week, as well as point to the series of other emergency reliefs he has put in place, including deferring VAT, mortgage holidays, scrapping business rates and free loans for businesses.

Insiders also yesterday claimed the new self-employed bailout has been “incredibly difficult” to set up, and there were also serious concerns about designing a system that took away the incentive to work.

Mr Johnson also told MPs yesterday that the Government will “put our arms around every worker” to help them during the unprecedented crisis.

He told PMQs: “As a society and a country we’re doing a quite extraordinary thing.

“For the first time in our history, to get through this crisis, we’re putting our arms as a country around every single worker, every single employee in this country.

“It is a quite unprecedented step. I know there are concerns about the self-employed, but he’ll be hearing more in the next couple of days from the Chancellor.”

The Chancellor last week launched an all-out bid to save millions of jobs by promising to pay 80 per cent of the wages of staff kept on the books.

And the PM hinted today’s bailout for Britain’s five million self-employed will be on a similar scale, saying he wants “parity” of support.

Mr Sunak also extended the one year business rates holiday to all firms forced to close for the coronavirus lockdown.

That means estate agents, hairdressers, furniture stores, sports shops and other businesses forced to shut down for at least three weeks will pay no rates until April 2022.

It is an extension of the one-year business rates holiday handed to retailers, pubs, restaurants, leisure centres and travel agents in last week’s announcement.

Author:  grandad [ Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Self-employed may have to wait two months for crisis cas

I think there are some inaccuracies in there. for instance all businesses that pay business rates and have a rateable value of less than £51,000 will get help for a year and if they qualify for small business rate relief then they will qualify for the £10,000 grant as well as paying no rates.

Author:  heathcote [ Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Self-employed may have to wait two months for crisis cas

grandad wrote:
I think there are some inaccuracies in there. for instance all businesses that pay business rates and have a rateable value of less than £51,000 will get help for a year and if they qualify for small business rate relief then they will qualify for the £10,000 grant as well as paying no rates.



Well,it is the SUN who very rarely get their facts right.

Author:  StuartW [ Thu Mar 26, 2020 1:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Self-employed may have to wait two months for crisis cas

Don't know about the rates stuff, but I wouldn't be surprised if payments are available well before the end of May specified in the article.

It's possible that selected journalists have been briefed that payments won't be made until the end of May, while in reality they'll be made well before that. But it prepares the ground for disappointment, and if the chancellor announces that payments will in fact be made at the end of April (say) then it makes him look good rather than him forcing claimants to wait for a long time.

That's often how these things work - make it look like something really bad will happen, but it's actually not quite as bad as anticipated, so it makes the announcement look better than it would have been.

But we'll see this afternoon.

Author:  Sussex [ Thu Mar 26, 2020 3:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Self-employed may have to wait two months for crisis cas

Quote:
In a bid to prioritise the nation’s most needy, The Sun can also reveal the Chancellor will target the emergency help at low and middle earners only.

Surely that must account for 99% of the trade. :-k

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