Prospect Union: This damning NAO report must make it impossible for ministers to continue to ignore excluded workers

General Secretary of Prospect Mike Clancy, responding to the NAO report on the government's employment support schemes, said:

“When the government support schemes were designed in March, Prospect not only warned the Treasury that it would exclude millions of self-employed and freelance workers, we provided them with solutions to include them.

“This damning report must make it impossible for ministers to continue to ignore these workers whose numbers they have repeatedly sought to downplay while deliberately excluding them from their support schemes.

“The Inquiry into the Future of Self-Employment that Prospect ha launched will look at these issues in further detail and ensure that by the next budget the government is presented with a comprehensive plan to support the workers it has so far failed.

“It is impossible to overstate the anger and sense of betrayal felt by those who have received no support for months on end. They will not forget this injustice and they will not forgive the government who has treated their livelihoods with such disregard.”