Important:

This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament

Rejected petition Broaden the COVID-19 furlough schemes to help those presently excluded.

There are generous schemes in place to help those affected by COVID-19 and the resulting economic issues. I would like the government to make the benefits open to ALL hardworking people affected by the problem, and not just those lucky enough to meet the existing criteria.

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As an example: my son's work as a prop maker in the leisure industry sees him create art for shops, theatres, theme parks and the like. Some of the people he works for prefer him to be an employee on a short term contract; for others, he is a self employed subcontractor. This continuous series of short term engagements of different types make him and thousands of others like him ineligable for any assistance either as an employee, or as a sole trader.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign some of these petitions:

Allow employees to claim the 80% income support directly from the Government: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/311183

Pay self employed workers a wage due to lack or earnings caused by COVID-19: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/303345

Pay self-employed workers 80% of trading profit regardless of other income/jobs: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/318716

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

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

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/192/the-governments-response-to-coronavirus/

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