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In order to support freelancers and self-employed people through the outbreak of Covid-19, the House of Commons Public Bill Committee has put forward an amendment to the Coronavirus Bill.
Group Editor
If the amendment, titled ‘Statutory Self-Employment Pay’, be accepted, it will mean that the government will ‘top up’ the earnings of self-employed people and freelancers up to 80 percent of their monthly net earnings, averaged over the previous three years, or £2,917 per month. The figure payable will be whichever is the lower of the two.
The first reading of the Coronavirus Bill took place in Parliament on March 19 and the second took place on March 23.
Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, said: “Many self-employed people are seeing their businesses hit harder and more quickly than they could ever have imagined, as the country grapples with the Covid-19 crisis. Almost every call currently being made to Business Debtline is about the impact of the outbreak on self-employed people’s finances – many of whose incomes are falling like a stone.
“This group is currently the least likely to benefit from the government’s financial response to the Covid-19 outbreak so far. The chancellor has already announced big and bold support for people in employment – there is now an urgent need to do the same for the UK’s self-employed workers."
This article originally appeared in Credit Strategy’s sister title, Reward Strategy.
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