Rejected petition Include self employed in the 80% wage support based off their last tax return

Rejected on 27 March 2020

With Covid 19 putting millions of self employed workers out of business, we feel we should be included in the 80% wage support being given to retained staff, to determin what that figure would be, use the tax returns submitted for tax year 2018/2019

The access to SSP and Universal credit is no where near enough to cover rent or even partial rent if landlords chose not to give a payment break, also, there is council tax to pay, food to buy, utilities and finance agreements not covered by the government at this time. There are also no guarantees that our businesses will be able to recover from this once the pandemic is over, yet we will still be expected to go back to full mortgage/ rent and bills with potentailly no income coming in.

Why was this petition rejected?

We can't publish petitions when the request is something that's already happening or something that has been announced since you started your petition.

We think your petition is covered by Government or Parliament action already. If you'd like something else, you could start a new petition clearly explaining what it is.

Since this petition was started, the Government has said that most self-employed people can claim a taxable grant worth 80% of their trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 per month for the next 3 months.

You can find out who is eligible and how to apply here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme

You can read the Government’s announcement here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-gives-support-to-millions-of-self-employed-individuals

You can find out what other Government support is available for people as a result of coronavirus (under the section on employment and financial support) here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.