Help for self-employed on its way
● Chancellor to announce financial support as London Mayor says UK should follow Scotland with construction shutdown
The Chancellor will unveil a package of measures to support the self-employed today after coming under intense pressure to help millions of workers who have already lost their livelihoods.
Boris Johnson insisted that “never in our history has the government put its arms around people in the way we are doing now” after being challenged over the delay to announcing support for selfemployed workers.
It came as new figures revealed nearly half a million people have applied for benefits in the past nine days, with the scale of the economic challenge posed by the coronavirus outbreak becoming increasingly clear.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said that around 477,000 claims for benefits have been “processed” since last Tuesday, with 105,000 being made for Universal Credit on Tuesday this week.
Claimants have complained of enormous queues to apply for Universal Credit online, with some being told they were waiting behind 130,000 other people.
Around a quarter of the 270,000 Universal Credit applications last week included a request for an advance
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions payment, MPS were told yesterday.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Therese Coffey told the Commons work and pensions committee: “The system is standing up to the challenge, but with a tenfold increase in claims it is inevitable that there are pressures on our services.
“We are taking urgent action to boost capacity, including moving 10,000 existing staff to work on new claims with 1,000 already in place, and will recruit a further 1,500 staff to aid the effort.”
There have been increasing calls for the UK government to match the support being offered to employees, who have been told 80 per cent of their salary is guaranteed up to a limit of £2,500 per month if they are placed on furlough by their employer.
But Rishi Sunak warned on Tuesday that designing measures for the self-employed has proved difficult because the only data the government holds on their earnings comes from income tax self-assessments that are 18 months out of date.
Construction workers have emerged as a particular source of concern, with the large number of labourers continuing to go to work in London raising fears of a sustained spread of coronavirus on public transport.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan appealed for the UK government to follow the Scottish Government in advising that all non-essential construction work be stopped during the nationwide lockdown.
At the final Prime Minister’s Questions session before Parliament goes into an extended month-long recess, Boris Johnson yesterday promised the government would “put its arms around every worker”, but was repeatedly challenged over the delay to a package of support.
Jeremy Corbyn, in his final PMQS as Labour leader, warned “the self-employed are having to choose whether they go to work or stay at home or face losing their entire livelihood”, and potentially putting public health at risk.
Mr Corbyn asked: “Why has it taken the Prime Minister so long to guarantee income for all self-employed workers? There are millions of them, our economy has changed.”
And the SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: “This morning the Resolution Foundation estimated that one in three people in selfemployment, a total of 1.7 million workers, are now at risk of losing their income.
“In Scotland, that means that 320,000 self-employed people are deeply concerned about the jobs and the families they support.”
He added: “Can the Prime Minister now explain why a package for the support for the self-employed wasn’t put in place before we announced the lockdown?”
Mr Johnson replied the government had “done a huge amount already to strengthen the safety net for everybody in this country”.
“The system is standing up to the challenge, but with a tenfold increase in claims it is inevitable there are pressures on our services”
THERESE COFFEY