Chancellor Rishi Sunak has outlined what support will be given to the self-employed as the coronavirus crisis deepens.
Those who work for themselves have been particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 outbreak and have been pleading with the government to come up with a support package.
Boris Johnson's government has come under fierce criticism amid accusations the PM has not acted quickly enough.
Speaking at press conference, Mr Sunak said that the government will pay self-employed people a taxable grant worth 80% of their average monthly profits of the last three years, up to £2,500 a month. However, the scheme will not be in place until early June.
This will be open to people across the UK for three months, but it can be extended if possible.
He said the scheme is:
- Open to anyone with trading profits of maximum of £50,000
- Available to anyone who makes majority of income from self employment
Only open to people with tax return in 2019
It will accessible from early June, but Mr Sunak said official are working to get it into place sooner.
He also said that anyone who missed the January filing deadline for tax return gets another four weeks to do so, so that they can benefit from this scheme too.
The grant will be paid straight into bank accounts.
Money Saving Expert’s Martin Lewis criticised the government for the way they have rolled out the scheme.
He said: "June is late. I think they are expecting people to claim universal credit, and use tax savings to get them through until the June payout.”
The Chancellor outlined his measures on Thursday, on the day the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 is likely to pass 10,000.
It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament he wanted to achieve “parity of support” so the self-employed could have similar levels of protection to waged workers.
Last week, plans were announced of 80% wage subsidies for PAYE employees.
