When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, our government did a fairly good job of making sure we, as a nation, were supported. I’ll get onto the employed and the self employed who will be receiving a 3rd SEISS payment, albeit very small, shortly. There were people that fell through the net and my thoughts are with them, this is what I want to discuss first.
The Forgotten
Not only did these people fall through the net, they’ve been excluded even further with Rishi Sunak’s speech today. His Winter Economy Plan failed to mention the 3 million excluded, and to add insult to injury, when asked about them, he ignored the question, excluding them further. Rishi, these people exist!
The 3rd SEISS Payment
Rishi made it clear in his speech and in his infographics on Twitter that the furlough scheme will be replaced with a job support scheme. This means that people will be supported in their jobs. If they are in a job affected by the pandemic, a third of their salary will be covered by the government and a third by the company. They will lose a third of their wage. They do have to work a third of what they usually would in order to qualify. It also has to be a viable job, whatever that means.
The Chancellor went on to briefly discuss the self employed. Did you know that 15% of the UK was self employed, which I imagine will have risen during this pandemic. The 1st SEISS payment gave us 80% of our wage based on previous tax returns. The send SEISS payment dropped to 70%. To make sure it’s fair, Rishi said that it would be similar terms and conditions to the job support scheme. The 3rd SEISS payment will be 20%. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but 20% isn’t anywhere similar to a third. 20% is in fact, a fifth. So it’snot similar in the slightest.
It’s also worth mentioning here that the furlough scheme that the job support scheme is replacing, runs out at the end of October. With the new scheme starting in November. The second SEISS payment covered June, July and August. The 3rd SEISS payment will start from November too. Meaning that September and October, there is no support for the self employed.
We’re The Ones Paying
The laughable part of all of this, the excluding, including, extending and deciding which jobs are viable (or worth saving!) is that we’re all going to pay for it at the end of the day. The government can spin it all they want with the never-before-seen level of support it’s dishing out. It’ll be the taxpayers who lumber the bill in the end. So if we’re all going to pay for this fund of support, we should all have access to it. It’s only right and it’s only fair!
