UK government promises freelancers payouts during coronavirus pandemic

A member of the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) staff puts up an information poster asking people not to travel, at Prince Regent station close to the ExCeL London exhibition centre in London on March 27, 2020.

Bianca Rahimi
Press TV, London


After receiving a slew of demands from dozens of companies and economists, the British government has unveiled a package for the self-employed. 

Millions of people across the UK are already in the red due to the coronavirus pandemic. Insurance companies describe the UK’s freelancers and self-employed as the backbone of the country’s economy.

On the 26th of March the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced a new income support scheme via which the self-employed can claim 80% of their average income over the previous three years.

Musicians and sound engineers, plumbers and electricians, taxi drivers and driving instructors, hairdressers and childminders and many others, through no fault of their own, risk losing their livelihoods.

But they’ll have to go it alone for another 2 months at least. The government payouts will begin in June, when people will receive a lump sum backdated to March 1. Only of course, if they can prove they are eligible. Meanwhile The World Health Organization is warning money is not the only thing people are worried about.

More than 7.5 million people live alone in the UK. This means less disposable income, lower levels of happiness and higher levels of anxiety. Only days into the lockdown, helplines are struggling with the sudden increase in calls amid coronavirus anxiety.

The world health organization has also warned that alcohol is an “unhelpful coping strategy”. This comes a day after the British government added off-licenses to the list of “essential” businesses allowed to stay open during lockdown. Alcohol-related hospital admissions in England have been on the rise for more than a decade, hitting a peak of 1.26m in 2019. 


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