Labour has called on the Chancellor to open his support scheme for the self-employed to the
200,000 people who only have a 2019/20 tax return.
The Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is currently only
open to those with a trading profit of less than £50,000 in
2018-19 or an average trading profit of less than £50,000 from
2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.
The Chancellor ruled out support for those who started their own
business after 6 April 2019.
The official deadline for 2019/20 self-assessment tax returns
passed at midnight yesterday (Sunday 31st January), although HMRC
has said there will be no penalty for later submissions up to 28
February.
Since the SEISS was launched, Labour has repeatedly called on the
Government to tackle the holes in the scheme, which has seen
millions excluded. Thus far the Chancellor has tried to justify
not covering those without a 2019-20 tax return as a measure ‘to
minimise fraud’.
But now the deadline for 2019/20 self-assessment tax returns has
passed, the Chancellor can no longer use the risk of fraud as an
excuse not to extend his scheme to the 200,000 people who have so
far missed out on any support during this crisis.
, Labour’s
Shadow Chancellor, says:
“The Chancellor has been ducking gaps in his economic support
schemes for almost a year now.
“Two hundred thousand people have been excluded simply because
they moved into self-employment in the year before the pandemic.
“Self-employed people are the backbone of the British economy,
which is why Labour has called repeatedly for the Chancellor to
plug the gaps in his support schemes.
“After the worst recession and worst growth of any major economy,
the Chancellor is letting them down.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
Labour is also calling for the Chancellor to make other changes
to his economic support schemes, including:
