Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The Prospect union, recognising the plight of the 3m self-employed excluded from government Covid support, has devised an emergency plan.
Its Self-Employment Stabilisation Scheme (SESS) would bolt onto the existing Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and offer help for the millions of Britons who have fallen through the cracks in government support, through no fault of their own.
Reasons for exclusion include being a company director or not having three years’ worth of accounts to submit to HMRC.
>See also: Liverpool launches £9.5m grant fund for ‘excluded’ self-employed
Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy called the Treasury’s treatment of the 3m excluded self-employed “disgraceful”, given how the government has encouraged self-employment and entrepreneurialism in the past.
The SESS would close existing gaps in the SEISS scheme and would introduce sectoral funds in areas with large freelance workforces, such as the creative industries.
In particular, the SESS proposes:
Allowing those who submit tax returns in January 2021 to access the fourth round of SEISS
A Freelancers Fund to support employers in sectors with large freelance workforces (such as creative industries) to take on freelance workers
Allow those who earn less than half their income through self-employment or earn more than £50,000 per annum