Coronavirus: Nick Ferrari told £94 a week "isn't enough" for self-employed
23 March 2020, 11:39
Nick Ferrari was told that the government should offer the same financial support to the self-employed as PAYE workers amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Alasdair Hutchison, Policy Development Manager at the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed joined Nick Ferrari on the line to share his views on how the government has treated self-employed workers. Mr. Hutchinson told Nick Ferrari that the compensation on offer to 5 million self-employed workers is paltry and simply won't help these people make ends meet.
The policy development manager told Nick that "what we offer employees should extend to the self-employed" to help make ends meet during the coronavirus crisis.
Nick asked if such legislation would help the average builder or taxi driver, to which Mr. Hutchinson countered that the "changes to universal credit won't be enough" for people that are used to earning hundreds a week as opposed to £94.
Sharing his knowledge of the rights of the self-employed, Mr. Hutchinson told Nick that his organisation has "been campaigning for self-employed for 20 years".
The Manager at the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed shared that "there's good will building" within the government for self-employed workers and insisted that "they're just trying to work out a precise mechanism" to provide funding for independent workers during this time.
"There's around 5mill people in UK self employed" Mr. Hutchinson told Nick and revealed that across all industries "they're all finding their work dry up".
He told Nick that in some sectors such as construction and transport these workers are finding it "really difficult to move to remote working" to keep going and as a result are seeing less money in their accounts as the weeks go by.
Mr. Hutchinson told Nick that there is a petition that the organisation have started to propose to the government strategies to provide more help for those at risk of losing money. You can sign the petition through instructions in the video above.
