IPSE: “dismaying” to see the self-employed “excluded from government thinking again”

IPSE has responded to the government’s pledge to pay two-thirds of the wages of employees of businesses that are forced to close, saying it is “dismaying” to see the self-employed left out of government thinking again.#

Andy Chamberlain, Director of Policy at IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed), said: “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.”