Self Employed missing out in the current crisis

[Dinahmo1]

Hi

I'm new to this thread and shouldn't really be on here as I'm not a parent but I'm an accountant who's worried about her clients, all of whom are self employed or who have some employment as well. I have just started a campaign on 38 Degrees asking the Chancellor to extend a self assessment rule which would enable all self employed people to average their profits over 2 years.

I'd be grateful if you would take a look at my petition and, if you agree with it, please sign it and pass it on to your friends. The link is
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/assistance-for-the-self-employed-1

Many thanks

Thanks signed and passed on

Signed

Thanks - my mate is an outdoor instructor and has lost pretty much her entire income for this year as her job is freelance - she leads DOfE, scouts, and school expeditions and will be in dire straits soon.

I've signed it. I'm self-employed. Not sure yet how I'll be affected, possibly not at all but I might lose one of my contracts so my income will drop 50%. Not to boast but I've paid about £20k in tax for years and I'll only be entitled to £94 a week (I think that's what it is) whereas people in full-time employment will get 80% of their wage up to £2,500 a month. It's just rubbish.

As I understand it...

If I lose income because I have symptoms/actually have Covid-19, then I get UC at SSP rates of 94 a week.

If however I lose income because I provide services and goods people do not currently want to justify spending money on.

I get fuck all.

Hurrah.

Hmmm, I'm not sure and I'm self employed.
The reason many people become self employed is that your hourly rate is better, but for that you forgo the benefits of being employed. It's a risk. But I'm not sure we can have it both ways.

I have paid hundreds of thousands in tax, seen my GP once in 15 years (so not much NHS use) and if I were unable to work would get £95 a week which would after tax pay less than my weekly council tax. When this is over and my high taxes have supported key workers on 80% of wages etc my taxes will no doubt go up well over 50% marginal rate I bet.

The idea that it is a benefit that we don't have to pay July's income tax then but can pay it with Jan 2021 is not helpful. I pushes self employed people into massive debt and although some will find it helps them in a time of need they will then have a huge debt to pay in Jan 2021 (similarly with VAT being postponed until June 2020).

They could let us keep forever all the VAT we gather in between now and June (but I doubt they would do that and many self employed people don't charge VAT). Spreading income over 2 years would be good and I think I remember that was or still may be done for those who sell a novel one year and then get small bits of income in other years so it is not even a new concept. however I would much prefer cash now eg no obligation to pay council tax or 10% tax rate for 2020 or £1000 a month gift from the state as we seem to think we have found the magic money tree in all this.

I'm a childminder. We were forced to close...and the first we knew about it was when it was in the news.

We have business interruption insurance that covers us for noticeable disease and forced closure. They say that doesn't cover Covid-19. And because we can stay open for essential workers we aren't closed. But we are.

We are able to remain open for essential workers, but many of us dont have them on our books. Me closing made three other people unemployed, as they had no childcare. They aren't covered in the same way as those made unemployed because of their own companies needing to close.

Oh and whilst we can remain open for essential workers, we aren't essential workers so we can't send our own children to school to make space in our ratios for these extra children.

Childminders who work alone can only look after three children at a time. So thinking about the social distancing rules, we have been stopped from having 3 regular children in our homes, to be allowed to have a steady stream of unknown children each day in our homes.

None of it makes any sense.

We've moved this over to the petitions topic now, @Dinahmo1

People are not self employed because they get a better hourly rate!!! Sometimes the nature of the job means it's the only way to get paid. It totally depends on the industry that you work in - construction...the arts... the list goes on. Some don't have the option. I've been self-employed for years and I fully except that I don't get sick pay, holiday pay or a top up to my pension but this is something completely different - this is a global pandemic! All affected workers should all be treated equally.

Exactly morphed3 - it's the inequality. We pay tax too but aren't getting any support.

Also, as Xenia said it's not that helpful to not pay our tax in July 2020 but have to pay it in January 2021. The first thing I thought when I heard that was well we've got tax to pay in January 2021 anyway so it'll just be double the amount. It's not helping that much, if at all. Yet others will get 80% of their wages.

I deliberately stay just below the VAT threshold as don't want to get into that. I'm hoping it goes up so that I can increase my hourly rate with one of my clients, although not yet and probably won't be this year now.

The answer is a universal basic wage, given to everyone not earning, for whatever reason.

It's not the first time the conservative government has been unequal. I lost out on child benefit as a single parent as earning too much but married couples could earn almost double and still get it. Just rubbish. Unequal.

Would this not be better being moved to the Coronavirus topic to get more people seeing this? I personally never look in Petitions. Where did this thread start off? AIBU? We need traffic, which I don't think Petitions has.

I've signed but it won't be enough for me.

Agree, I’ve do we get it moved to Coronavirus topic?

*how

I might press the report button and ask MNHQ to move it. Hopefully they'll see it.

I've 'reported' the thread and suggested MNHQ move it to Coronavirus. Can you do the same tigerbear? If two of us suggest it they might do it.

@MNHQ please could this be moved?

@LouMumsnet please could this be moved to the Coronavirus topic? Thank you

On a separate note - my business partner and I have paid over £150k in taxes in the last year.
Why shouldn’t we be eligible for some proper help from the government??

100% agree our tax will be helping to pay it all back just as much as the PAYE workers. Some of us took the risk due to the inefficient and expensive childcare options in the UK . Another thread said we pay £300 odd less in NI . I would gladly trade that in for benefits employees enjoy. We should get 80% up to £2500 just like the others .

Signed. Thank you OP.

I posted yesterday asking for advice. I'm a SE cleaner/domestic help and all my clients have cancelled me this week. 25 hours work gone in less than a week. I'm scared and don't know how I'm going to cope. Started a UC claim but when I got to the employment bit none of it fitted me. All I can do is try and phone them Monday. I'm in a rural area and our largest employer shut last week laying off about 1000 workers. So even the extra jobs created by our two supermarkets are not going to be enough to go around. Lots of pubs, cafes, and restaurants also closed so those workers are also in the same position. Terrifying times.

To clarify - a rural tourist area with a big holiday camp and lots of smaller ones. So even more unemployed than I first thought.