Government urged to extend SEISS

With the government extending the employee Job Retention Scheme, it’s been suggested that it would be unfair if the self-employed don’t get the same treatment.

The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) is urging the government to also extend the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

If not, the IPSE says this will be a ‘glaring injustice’ with the likely outcome being that many self-employed people will be forced back to work in what could be unsafe conditions.

Andy Chamberlain, Director of Policy at IPSE, commented, “The self-employed aren’t just a vital and major part of the workforce: they are also the hard-working entrepreneurs we will need to kickstart the economy after Coronavirus. However, most of them cannot continue their work in the midst of this deadly pandemic and they are relying on government support to get by.”

Chamberlain added, “We were delighted when the government heeded our calls and set up the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, but now it must keep it open as long as the self-employed need it. It must not commit a glaring injustice by extending the employee Job Retention Scheme but pulling the rug from under the self-employed. Maintaining employee support while scrapping self-employed support also risks forcing freelancers back to work in unsafe conditions. It risks forcing them to make an awful choice between their health and their income.”

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