Workers barred from claiming ask: Where’s the support for us?

IN THE days after last month’s Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak had an encouraging message for the nation.

Mr Sunak has remained adamant that the Government has been a rock for Britain’s battered economy, throwing a supporting arm around the UK’s workforce and providing billions of pounds in financial support since the first lockdown in March last year.

The Chancellor, the MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire, said: “There’s still a lot of difficulty in the economy but the Government’s going to be here, it’s going to keep supporting you, your business, your family, through the crisis.” However, the ExcludedUK campaigning group believes more could and should be done to stop taxpayers falling between the gaps.

According to the group, those excluded from support include the newly self employed, who set up their business after April 6 2019 and therefore do not have a tax return from the previous three financial years prior to that date.

Others who are excluded include business people whose non-trading profit is more than 50 per cent of their trading profit.

Many people who start out in self employment do so gradually and will often continue pay-asyou-earn work to minimise risk.

However, they cannot claim from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme based on their income from selfemployment if this forms less than 50 per cent of their total income.

Also excluded are those with annual trading profits of more than £50,000.

According to ExcludedUK, the majority of those earning over the £50,000 cap are not high earners, with many in the £50,000 to £70,000 bracket.

Many people have been denied furlough when they could have benefitted from the scheme, according to ExcludedUK.

They include those on maternity leave, those shielding and zero-hours contract workers.