Labour has called on Chancellor to protect self-employed people by setting the fourth
grant of the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) at 80%
of pre-crisis profits.
Today (Friday) marks the deadline for applications to the third
phase of the scheme, but as yet there are no details about how
much the fourth grant will be, when applications will open or who
will be eligible for it.
Last week it was revealed that there would be no official
announcement on the fourth grant until the Budget on March 3 –
more than a month into the period it is supposed to cover.
That means the 2.4 million self-employed people currently relying
on the SEISS scheme will be left in the dark about future support
for weeks during a national lockdown.
It comes as new figures from the Office for National Statistics
reveal more British businesses went to the wall in the last
quarter of 2020 than at any time over the last four years.
According to the ONS, UK business closures between October and
December 2020 were 37% higher than the fourth quarter of 2019,
with more than 100,000 business closures.
More people are turning away from self-employment as a result,
with a separate ONS survey this week showing a 10% drop in the
number of self-employed people last year, a fall of over half a
million.
The first and second SEISS grants were paid at 80% and 70% of
three months’ worth of average pre-crisis monthly trading profits
respectively. The third grant was eventually paid at 80%, but
only after weeks of uncertainty for applicants amid government
chopping and changing its plans, initially floating proposals to
set the grant as low as 20% or 40% of pre-crisis profits.
, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the
Treasury, said:
“We need Britain’s hardworking entrepreneurs to help secure our
economy out of this crisis and get Britain back on the path to
recovery.
“They’ve already had to contend with the worst recession and the
worst growth of any major economy. Leaving them in the dark about
future support risks pushing even more out of business – and that
will damage our recovery.
“The Chancellor should reverse this economically illiterate
decision and reassure self-employed people that the fourth grant
will be paid at 80% of pre-crisis profits.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
- HMRC data, referring to 15th November, shows
that 2.4m claims had been made by that date for the second
grant (HMRC
data)
- The number of self-employed people has fallen by half a
million, or 10% in the last year, comparing September to
November 2020 with the same period in 2019(ONS
Labour Market Stats, A01 Table 3)
- The number of businesses removed from the
Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) (business closures)
in the UK in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2020 was 37% higher than
the fourth quarter of 2019 and higher than any fourth quarter
of the past four years, with 106,400 business closures.
(ONS
business demography data out today)
