Rishi Sunak speech....

[unhappyclap]

What are people thinking so far?

But rich for a gov that claim to encourage and support hard workers and savers!

I am part self employed and work as a teacher in a school part time.
My self employed wages are £200 on average each month and my teaching wages (which thank god will stay the same are about £800 pm odd)
My DH earns too in a secure job so I don’t think there will be anything available to help me. The £200 I earn each month for my SE work is for food. The rest goes on bills etc.

I don’t know what to do?

Is anyone else SE and worrying.
I suppose we’re all in the same (leaking) boat.

But once you get to £16k you can start claiming UC which while a pittance, is what many people live on. To say folk shouldn’t use their savings because it might be earmarked for a wedding or somesuch is nonsense. Peoples plans are changing all the time, I know I’ll take a financial hit in all this but I chose to have part of my income on a self employed basis - I certainly don’t have £16k in savings to fall back on and will cut my cloth to suit.

I bet there’s going to be a huge influx with self employed people needing mental health care after all this stress! What a total nightmare!

The thing is all this will have to be paid back through taxes, the gov can easily do that through paye

mental health is going to be a massive issue for loads of people, not just those who are SE

I agree - I’m so stressed and tearful already but the perspective is ‘at least you’ve a secure job as an nhs worker’

@Pomegranatepompom I dont think that perspective is helpful. I mean where do you toe the line? You have a secure job but your neighbour doesn't. Well that neighbour isn't ill whereas Mr Brown next to him is in hospital. But Mr Brown has a home he can return too & food whereas the homeless man doesn't. At least the homeless man is alive whereas Mrs Blue died yesterday.

Can someone explain the £400 for self employed? We've tried UC calculator and we're told we aren't entitled to anything. Ssp is only for self isolating or if you have corona virus.
We have no savings and about 10k in the bank for the tax. If we use that then won't we be fined in January because we won't have the correct tax!?

I also don’t understand the £400 for self employed. My income is now 0. My partner who I live with is still working but has had his hours cut. I can’t just live off my tax money as I’ll still need it by January and I’m unlikely to be able to recoup it by then with no work coming in for the foreseeable.

I've been going back and fourth with is.

The nature of self employment we dont have employment rights because we are not employees therefore why do we expect to be treated the same as the employed?

We struck out on our own knowing advantages and disadvantages and outright risk- insecurity is inbuilt to the SE model.

The chancellors special measures- for employees and business and charities ensures that there will be opportunities for us to speculate when we get through this pandemic.

In the meantime there is universal credit, mortgage and rent payment protection, v.a.t and income tax deferrement and council tax help. I've recently just started my second venture in Self employment. First time I was SE for 8 years and it was always in the back of my mind that as my money wasnt guranteed so provisions were made accordingly.

So I cannot believe you all are as skint as you are claiming to be. If you are your SE work cannot have been much of a viable enterprise in the first place so go claim the UC.

This extraordinary circumstance has made me realise that I will need a good SE insurance plan or become a limited company and make myself an employee.

I say it again! There are thousands of temporary vacancies up and down the country in companies desperately trying to keep food on the shelves. There is no reason why the healthy (especially younger) workforce shouldn’t applying and contributing during desperate times!

@adiposegirl2 in general i agree with you. There has been so much criticism of the SE 'help' that i think it will change over the next few days, it just takes longer to sort out. Everyone is adapting to this new life.

Plus, there are hundreds of vacancies now in supermarkets / food supply etc as the PP has said. For those who are in urgent need of immediate work would that not be a solution if only temporarily??

It’s hardly as simple as ‘claim uc’. Another thing they don’t seem to factored is that if you have a partner who earns over x amount (whatever the threshold is) you can’t claim. So we are talking about lots of middle income families seeing their income halved overnight. Obviously the very rich and very poor will be offered some protection.

Stacking shelves is absolutely a tempo option if you aren’t high risk or aren’t living with someone high risk but it’s not a long term option for people whose whole livelihoods have been removed. Thinking about people I know who are SE and freelance they are a makeup artist for stage productions, pyrotechnics tech, deliver specialist training (some of which can be done online) personal trainers. At least three of these now have no career. They are highly trained and earn fairly good money, therefore they have fairly high outgoings. UC /sacking shelves won’t get them enough to cover their bills so what happens to them now ?

Does anyone know what the threshold actually is for UC?

I have went from having a good little business, which I run from home, to earning @ £180 a month, which is only because two of my wonderful clients have insisted on paying me a retailer each month until this is over. The nature of their work means they will either work from home or still get a wage while off.

That should help me pay for the electric and heating card, if I don’t switch any lights on and wash most dishes, such as cups and some plates, in cold water. My mortgage company has been brilliant and are giving me a three month break, which will be reviewed later. Now I have see if I’m entitled to any help.

I was very impressed by his speech, basically nationalising everything, and by the rest of the measures being taken. Although I do think further lockdown is needed sooner because people are not taking any notice of the guidance. Especially on social distancing, metre apart, only essential travel etc

Right for the Self Employed:

I've just found some Universal credit rates
This example assumes lone parent with two dependents
Single person over 25 £318
Rent £800
2 dependants £509
Chancellors additional £1000 over 12 months £83.33= £1710 per month
Child benefit £136 per month
You would apply for council tax relif from your council
And the minimum income floor does not apply so we'd get the full entitlement to UC for SE

For me that would be enough to keep my family going

Or if you have SE insurance, maybe they'd pay you out.

Also it seems UC SE expenses are far more restricted than HMRC expenses.

Please do your own research for your individual circumstances.

Yes that’s not most people’s circumstances though. You can cherry pick the highest rate and assume that everyone will get that.

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat
I did write
Please do your own research for your individual circumstances

Or wait for guidance notes or call HMRC to clarify?

I have tried but funnily enough they’re a bit busy and the website keeps crashing. So I was just asked in case anyone happened to know.

Sorry, did someone just say the government should bail you out when you have over 16k savings? Are you having a laugh?

I have over that in savings, saved over 4 years for a house deposit. There is no WAY that I'd expect government handouts when I can essentially support myself for years - that money is for the most vulnerable! It's not free money - we will be paying for it for years to come. Why take what you don't need? WTF happened to personal responsibility? Why should the government pay for you because you'd rather spend that pile of cash on something else?

This is why I saved, because I regularly hate jobs/have breakdowns and I know that I need months/years of money for those fairly common events. I didn't prepare for a pandemic but I wouldn't now say "well, the money wasn't for a pandemic so can I have some handouts please".

In ordinary circumstances no, people with savings shouldn’t be ‘bailed out’ but neither should people be on 80% or possibly full pay for doing nothing right ? Employees get that regardless of when they have savings, or other wealth, accumulated. We’re talking about whole industries vanishing overnight ffs. You can’t offer help to employees to keep jobs going whilst saying the 5 mil SE essentially go fuck themselves.

And it’s not just savings. Anyone with a partner than earns (I think it’s 26000 per year) can’t claim UC either. Most people couldn’t cope with their income being halved or possibly more. What will these people do?

In ordinary circumstances no, people with savings shouldn’t be ‘bailed out’ but neither should people be on 80% or possibly full pay for doing nothing right ? Employees get that regardless of when they have savings, or other wealth, accumulated. We’re talking about whole industries vanishing overnight ffs. You can’t offer help to employees to keep jobs going whilst saying the 5 mil SE essentially go fuck themselves

@Peapod29 puts it perfectly.