Taxi Driver Online

I’m not 100% that they were initially refused, it seems that they were led to believe by officials that they would be.

But they logged in, filled in the online forms and their applications were accepted.

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IDFIMH

Chancellor announces new self-employed support scheme details.

Three month extension.

From June 1st to August 31st grant as before but 70% of profits.

Well done to the government.

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IDFIMH

Thanks chancellor,now the finance company need to be reasonable too.

Aye, if they still want customers next year and every year after that it would be in the finance companies own interest (no pun intended) to be reasonable otherwise many will go to the wall.

but this is the last we'll get and we have to apply for it again but not until August at the end of the 3 month period again

If things haven't picked up by then there will be a lot of struggling drivers out there or a lot that will decide to stick with universal credit and jack driving in

I really can't see trade ever getting back to within 80 percent of levels pre covid and even then it was a bit poor. I seriously think I may have to show some drivers the door so that those left can still earn enough but I also suspect that at least 2 maybe 3 might decide not to bother anyway

This volunteer scheme has taken a lot of trade off us and I can't see it coming back as many of those volunteers will probably continue when things go back to normal

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

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I think many have already gone down that route, and many more will in the next three months.

I think the trade is currently running about 25-33% of it's pre covid fleet, might get to 40% by the end of August, but can't seeing it get to 50% by Xmas.

I can't see a lot of the BAME drivers back until there is a vaccine or treatment.

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IDFIMH

Yes, I was expecting any second payment to be made earlier. In fact thought it would be paid in June, so would kind of be in advance instead of arrears.

Not sure why it's not being paid earlier. Assumed the reason first payment made towards the end of the period was that they needed time to get the whole system up and running, which obviously isn't an issue this time. And some people maybe used their limited savings until they got first payment, but not so easy this time round. And, maybe it's just me, but there will always be an element of uncertainty about it all until it's actually in the bank. As if they'll maybe change their mind or something. Or maybe I'm just too paranoid

Anyway, excellent news overall, and well done Mr Chancellor

And it will arrive (in mid-August, apparently) just a week or two before my insurance and licence renewals are due, so to that extent the timing could have been worse, for me at least.

Obviously I'd have preferred the 80% of profts to be retained, and any restriction applied to some other factor. But I suppose it could have been worse than reducing the figure to 70%. The cap is reduced from £7,500 to £6,570, which certainly won't affect me, nor I suspect the vast majority of grass roots drivers. The cap still equates to average annual profits of about £37,500, so most drivers well below that, so cap irrelevant.


Anyway, to work out your grant, just multiply what you got last time by 0.875

So if you got £3,800 last time:

£3,800 x 0.875 = £3,325

So grant in August should be £3,325

Uber drivers in court over ministers’ failure to help gig workers

The High Court is today hearing a case brought by two Uber drivers and the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) over HM Treasury’s alleged failure to protect low paid and precarious workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

It focuses on workers in the gig economy who qualify for the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS), rather than the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which the claimants argue constitutes “significantly” better income protection. In particular:

There has been “unacceptable delay” as the SEISS was only introduced this month

It excludes workers that became self-employed after 6 April 2019

It excludes those who derive less than half their income from self-employment

It does not cover ongoing overheads that most self-employed workers have

It covers fewer months than the CJRS.

The claimants argued that the current statutory sick pay (SSP) regime discriminates against women, black, Asian and minority ethnic workers and individuals in the gig economy. They also argued that the exclusion from the CJRS of “limb (b)” workers – the category of self-employment where the worker is entitled to basic employment rights such as holiday pay – is discriminatory.

The IWGB also challenged the government’s adherence to the Public Sector Equality Duty. In his argument, Ben Collins QC, described the government’s attempt to carry out an Equality Impact Assessment under the Public Sector Equality Duty as “a box-ticking exercise” which – even when acknowledging the “need for speed” under the pressure of the pandemic – was exemplified by documents’ inclusion of pro forma content.

Julian Milford QC, for the government, argued that there are important differences between those on pay-as-you-earn and those who are not. Those outside PAYE make annual tax returns based on their profit, not their income. He said that the two groups are not in an analogous situation and that the CJRS was designed for those on PAYE and it could not be adapted for the self-employed because HM Revenue and Customs could never know what was owed to an individual.

“HMRC can’t tell who is and who isn’t a limb (b) worker. They can’t distinguish limb (b) workers from the purely self employed… so it would be reliant upon employees to self declare.”

Collins argued that the fraud relating to furlough and universal credit had been widely reported but Milford said that the fraud risk for allowing non-PAYE workers access to the CJRS was of a completely different order.

“The line has to be drawn somewhere and the logical place to draw that is whether or not you’re inside or outside PAYE,” said Milford.

Claimant Ahmad Adiatu, a member of the IWGB, told the press: “I started working as an Uber driver a few years ago thinking it would be enough to provide for me and my family, but now with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic it has become impossible.

“As an Uber driver, costs such as car maintenance, insurance and congestion charge can reach over £1,000 a month. Now I have no money, so can’t even renew my private hire licence. With virtually no income coming in, we’ve been struggling to get by and we are behind on our rent.

“My wife, who is now breastfeeding, has even had to sell her phone in order to buy food for herself and the children. I’ve always worked hard and provided for my family. I just want to be able to continue doing that.”

IWGB general secretary Jason Moyer-Lee explained: “Statutory sick pay has never been more important, for both low paid workers as well as for society more generally, than it is now. So it must be extended to cover more people and set at a rate which actually allows workers to go off sick and follow public health advice.

“Similarly, it is crucial that the shortcomings of the SEISS are fixed so as to avoid further unnecessary destitution. It is unfortunate we have had to litigate to make these points, but this government has left us and our members with no choice.”

According to the TUC at least one in 10 adults work in the gig economy work – around 4.7 million people in the UK.

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IDFIMH

Anybody Else seen this it’s on the gov U.K web site . Minor updates have also been made to the guidance on claiming a grant through the SEISS and how HMRC works out trading profits and non-trading income for the SEISS, but these are not announced in the ‘updates’ sections of the relevant guidance, according to which these two sets of guidance were last updated on 29 May and 7 May respectively. These updates make it clear (in line with the guidance on checking if you can claim a grant through the SEISS) that an eligible individual whose business has been adversely affected on or after 14 July 2020 will be able to make a claim in August 2020, and can claim for the second grant even if they did not make a claim for the first grant.

The claiming a grant guidance also states that:

an individual may have to pay a penalty if they know they’ve been overpaid, or are not eligible for the grant, and do not tell HMRC (before this change, the guidance suggested that an individual may have to pay a penalty if HMRC needs to recover a payment)

individuals who know they need to tell HMRC that they have been overpaid or are not eligible for the grant should not contact HMRC yet; the guidance will be updated soon with how they can do this

That's that cleared up nicely...

When can we claim the second payment, I thought it was from the 14th of July
Cannot find a link on the HMRC site

Think the whole system goes 'live' on 17 August, so everyone should have received their payment before the start of September.

So you're a month early, Skippy

And posting in the wrong section of the forum

Then again, lots of people on here seem to misunderstand the meaning of 'News', whether wilfully or not

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-gra ... ort-scheme

Incidentally, kind of lost interest in all of this, but the criteria for the second grant includes that you should be adversely affected on or after 14 July 2020.

Which I doubt will be a problem for the vast majority of the trade, since few if any will be back to normal profitability at this time.

But, and as regards what I was saying last time round, it says:


There's also some info on what 'advesely affected' means:


Again, all pretty straightforward for the vast majority of the trade.

But, for example, assuming things were back to normal for me, does the last criterion mean that I could claim thousands in a grant if my only adverse affect was buying £30's worth of hand sanitizer and face masks?

Who knows, and it's all hypothetical anyway.

Anyway, the Government has provided some practical examples of who can claim for the first and second grants.

Five of the six scenarios are for builders for some reason, but I suspect scenario 5 is the one closest to most in the trade:


Anyway, the full list of scenarios can be read here, but I doubt if many in the trade really need to look at these, and it's all quite straightforward:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-differe ... d-examples

But what might be required in terms of 'evidence' to demonstrate this isn't clear, but presumably it might entail a bit more than showing them your normal books.

But I suspect only a very small proportion of people will be required to produce such 'evidence'.

There are four things you can guarantee Skippy to always do

1) not check to see if a story has already been posted before starting the thread

2) not read any of the other posts before posting a reply

3) to have a dig at LTI and successors about the Fx4 TX etc.

4) to make exaggerated claims as to how much he earns at Xmas and New year

and he is set in his ways so you will never change him

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

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Any of you chaps had a letter from HMRC regarding the second part of the SEISS scheme, I'd read somehwere that these letters were to be sent out on the week coomencing 10th of August to those who qualify for it and or who received the first Seiss payment.

This thing supposedly goes live on the 17th of August(Monday) and your not supposed to make a claim before the date and time they give you...............Cutting it a bit fine are they not?

Ok....ignore the above, I found out you can check your application date on the GOV site:

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/self-employment-support/enter-unique-taxpayer-reference