So that's effectively everyone who works in a pub, club, theatre or restaurant out of work for at least 12 weeks?

[DoubleAction]

Is it? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Most of those won't be paid if they don't work and there won't be any customers.

Unless I missed it there was nothing said about them or what support there will be for them

@Pippitypong absolutely agree with you “ the 2 are inseparable”

Today my sister, brother in law & dd1 have all lost their jobs. Dd1 was hospitality - she lived in so that’s gone too - it’s her first job, she won’t be eligible for any sort of JSA. Sister & BIL are freelance, classic gig workers ... now can’t pay their mortgage/rent. My parents are utterly fucked financially now - I have no idea how they will recover. It’s a nightmare.

@userxx Thank you . I know that so many people will be affected and as a self employed person there’s no help there for me but more so my business has been going for 14 years so it’s doubly heartbreaking. I spent most of this evening replying to customer emails who were cancelling after hearing BJs speech and I was expecting it 🙁

He has no fucking idea what it’s like to be living from pay check to pay check.

He doesn't want to get an idea, either, because he doesn't give a fuck.

In France they say this

No business, regardless of size, will be allowed to fail

In the UK you are fucked!

I’m not in hospitality but our business interruption won’t cover us. We covered for “communicable diseases” but only listed in the cover.... so fine if we had a typhus or polio outbreak, but not Covid-19. I expect hospitality will be similar.

The Government must step in with support.

Bojo doesn't give a crap about the low earners who have families to support. My dad is a small business owner employing 4 staff. This will shut him down if it keeps going. Bojo's been very sneaky about what he's saying and is doing this so it won't cost the government. There must be so many families or employees affected with a roof to keep over their heads and/a family or themselves to feed.

We had an email from our insurer today just highlighting that business interruption cover wouldn't kick in because "covid-19" wasn't on the list of notifiable diseases (because it didn't exist at the time cover was taken out and had we tried to add it once it became a risk it would have been excluded anyway).

School can you say why it would have been excluded after it was a risk? Insurance guy on radio talking tonight about this being offered as it would help.

His words were if you have notifiable diseases you are covered. It is not to do with govt forcing them to close.

If govt does force it what then kicks in?

Social media saying Village Hotel has laid off staff today. I imagine leisure hospitality and entertainment are going to take such a big hit, along with those who do work linked to schools, art classes etc.

StatisticallyChallenged Mon 16-Mar-20 19:40:23

It was cowardly. It looks like they're trying to avoid having to actually force the closure of businesses to avoid having to bail them out.

Combine that with the fact that the wonderful SSP reclaim is NOT POSSIBLE, and won't be for months, there's no way to claim the grants...their support for businesses is horseshit.

This ^^

Boris Johnson's motto is 'Words are cheap'.

That COVID-19 is not yet a notifiable disease is a national scandal.

Not just them. Event managers, cabin crew, pilots.... this affects everyone

You forget Estate agents.

How will renters find new accommodation too under lockdown conditions?

From gov website

At 6.15pm on 5 March 2020, a statutory instrument was made into law that adds COVID-19 to the list of notifiable diseases and SARS-COV-2 to the list of notifiable causative agents.

gov site

RENT contact your landlord and ask politely to defer your rent payment this month - or ask if you can pay a lower amount for the next 6 months and catch up later. If your landlord has a mortgage they can probably get repayments deferred if they contract the bank.

COUNCIL TAX Contact your council as soon as possible if you're struggling to pay your Council Tax. You can choose to spread your payments over 12 months instead of the usual 10 to reduce the amount you're asked to pay on each bill. Ask your council to set this up for you.Your council may give you a one-off discount if you still can't pay what you owe.

WATER it's illegal to cut off water supply so don't panic.

If you assume now that your sector may be collapsing because even if your employer survives there will be a recession and your customers are likely to have had reduced incomes in this period and unable to afford holidays or meals out.

Citizens Advice has lots of helpful advice regarding paying bills eg water, utilities.

We will all have to tighten our belts.

So much of our economy is based on self employment, zero hours contracts and the gig economy. It's also a very service based economy.

It's a real worry.

For many/most insurance policies it being added to the government notifiable disease list isn't helping. Our policy, like a PPs, covers closure due to notifiable diseases but the definitions section contains a specific list of what it counts as notifiable. Covid-19 didn't exist when that list was prepared and they are refusing to add it.

Statistically because it wasn’t added as the new clause after March 5 I assume?

I did wonder how people were meant to know to update their insurance after that date.

Our policy is older than March 5, but they're not adding it to the list for new policies either afaik

Really that is against what insurance man said on LBC. I’m not saying you’re wrong but a disconnect.

Put it this way, if anyone can find an insurer who will write business interruption cover that will cover covid 19 now for a business which hasn't yet been shut then please tell me as I'll buy it

Many policies also don't offer full cover from inception either - sometimes there's a lag before all cover kicks in.

Unfortunately I suspect it was a very small window. One that business owners wouldn’t have been alerted to.

In which case yes the insurance guy was weasly.