Self-employed excluded from government thinking again, says IPSE

With the government’s latest pledge to pay two-thirds of employees’ wages for those working for firms that are forced to close, the IPSE say the self-employed have been left out again.

Andy Chamberlain, Director of Policy at IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed), commented, “The new support for employees and businesses in local lockdowns is the right move, but it is dismaying to see the self-employed excluded yet again from the government’s thinking.

“Local lockdowns will affect many self-employed people just as much as employees, but as it stands they have much, much less support available to them. If a self-employed hairdresser, plumber or contractor is caught in a local lockdown and unable to work, they are entitled to just 20 per cent of their usual earnings. And there are over a million limited company directors and newly self-employed who are not even entitled to that.

“Government must not leave the self-employed to fall through the cracks of the ever-growing patchwork of local lockdowns across the UK. It must extend the amount and the parameters of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme to offer targeted support for the self-employed that matches these new measures.”

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