Coronavirus: The Government Is Accused Of Discriminating Against Self-Employed Workers

It’s been four days since the government confirmed it would pay 80% of the wages of employees unable to work due to covid-19 crisis, but there’s still no equal support for the self-employed.

I am one of the estimated 4.8 million self-employed people working in the UK and it is beyond frustrating. The government, so far, has only offered us £94.25 a week in Universal Credit to make up for lost earnings.

A petition calling for parliament to have a debate to support the top-up of wages for the self-employed during this outbreak has attracted nearly 24,000 signatures (and counting).

Celebrities are calling out the government as well as leading politicians like Jess Phillips and Jeremy Corbyn, who are criticising the lack of effective support for freelance workers.

‘Even the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, admitted he couldn't survive on £94 a week Statutory Sick Pay that self-employed people are supposed to live on,’ Corbyn tweeted. 'The government is protecting incomes for employees. It must do the same for self-employed, agency and zero hours workers.’

For the majority of self-employed workers, £94 barely covers the food shop and bills for their household and with the government also not making things easier for renters, some will have to choose whether to pay rent or eat. This is a stressful situation for the whole country but this sort of economic discrimination is just making it worse.

As a freelance writer, I spend most of my time writing about films and TV, but because of the pandemic, there are fewer film releases to write about thus fewer opportunities to get paid. I am fortunate enough that I am able to do my job, or as much as is currently possible, from home but many other self-employed people do not have that luxury.

Mia, 28, a stripper from London had to take two week off work before the lockdown because she had symptoms and didn’t want to transmit them to people at the club she works at. Because she’s self-employed, she does not get statutory sick pay. Now the club is closed, she has no income coming in and is having to use her savings to survive.

‘My earnings were high and I have saved money [but] that goes against me when applying for universal credit,’ she says. ‘I pay my taxes and I feel like I should be supported.’

I too have savings that I have been squirrelling away for the last two years in an attempt to get myself onto the housing market but as Mia says, it goes against you when you are applying for Universal Credit. I wonder, is that a factor considered for employed people getting 80% of their income? Are they expected to use up the money they’ve worked hard to save during this time of crisis?

‘I had savings that I wanted to keep for the next tax year and also to cover a supplementary payment to pay in July,’ says Laura, 26, a freelance commercial agent. ‘I went freelance because I thought I could afford to but now work could drop off and it's scary.

‘I’ve also heard that applying for the Universal Credit is a nightmare and I’d rather be spending my time sending emails and doing something productive than wasting time on something that gives me just £20 or so a day.’

The government website has been flooded with people trying to apply for the Universal Credit benefit. I waited three hours before I could access the Digidentity website in order to verify my account and by the time I downloaded the app to upload my supporting documents, it wouldn’t let me take a selfie to post with them. I gave up.

Today (24 March), the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rushi Sunak said the government were still working on a plan to support the self-employed workforce but added it was ‘incredibly complicated to design.’

Of course it's complicated but some MPs put forward an amendment to the Coronavirus Bill that would ‘make the Government “top-up” self-employed workers’ earnings to the lower of 80% of their net monthly earnings averaged over three years, or £2,917 a month.’

That seems like a pretty simple plan of action to me and would help every person across the broad spectrum of self-employment.

From taxi drivers to labourers, as well as the many freelance people who work in the media like me, we need the government to make this an urgent issue, not one to mull over for even longer.

This government needs to pull its finger out and protect every worker in the country, not just the ones who pay tax via PAYE.

READ MORE: How Coronavirus Is Changing The Way We Live