30/04/2020
As a self-employed person this is the reality faced.
The government gave ‘lip service’ to the public to make them believe the self-employed were being helped, but the truth is it will only help a very small amount of us for various reasons!
The reality of the financial issues hitting the self-employed right now:
⛔️ If you don’t have premises - NO £10k grant.
⛔️ We aren’t employed - NO 80% of wages covered.
⛔️ We can apply for universal credit and get a maximum of £300 per month, but if we live with a partner who’s lucky enough to have a wage then we get nothing.
⛔️ We haven’t been given a definitive direction to close, but all of our clients are cancelling and our industries are mounting pressure and shame on us to close - the same people who are getting grants and their staff are getting 80% of their wages paid.
Some of us will get 3 month’s worth of 80% of our last 3 year tax returns (averaged over 3 years) but not until June 😱.
Now also bear in mind that this is 80% of our profits, not our income! That means we get 80% of the disposable income we have after we’ve paid our bills and business expenses. Trust us, there’s not a lot left after that for the majority of us.
We know we have to do social distancing. But we are a few days away from zero income.
All these people have built their businesses from zero with unimaginable amounts of blood, sweat and tears.
Please be compassionate and empathetic to your self-employed friends, their world is crumbling around them and they haven’t been thrown the same lifeline as you. They are being forced to make horrendously difficult decisions and don’t need any more shame from anyone else.
All SELF-EMPLOYED PEOPLE PLEASE COPY AND PASTE TO YOUR TIME LINE AND SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER.
