There are approximately 3-4m people who have been excluded from the Government support schemes for Covid-19. Included in this group of people are the newly self-employed, who hadn’t submitted a tax return last year; those in the so-called 50/50 group, under SEISS (Self-employment Income Support Scheme) who have less than 50% of their total earnings from trading profits; the PAYE Freelancers who fall between the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme because they cannot be furloughed and SEISS under the 50/50 group; those who earn over £50,000, who cannot claim under SEISS, and those who have been denied furlough. There are also the directors of small actively trading limited companies, but I have already written a policy for this group called the Directors Income Support Scheme (DISS).
These different groups have had no support from the Government and have had no or little work since the start of the pandemic. Most people do not have large amounts of savings that could support them for, what is now, nearly a year. These people have had to spend all their savings, possibly also cash in their pension, will most likely be in debt and behind with the mortgage.
There are, however, about 3.4m who have been helped by the SEISS scheme, so we now have the haves and the have nots. Those who have been helped haven’t had to spend their savings and have had relatively generous Government Support and the only difference is an arbitrary support system.
Most of these people would have had viable incomes had it not been for the pandemic and now they have nothing left. What is worse is that if there is a tax hike in the Budget, these people will be paying for those who had support.
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