COVID-19 Self-employment Survey
The new Coronavirus, officially name COVID-19, was first declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 11TH March 2020, when the number of affected countries and individuals drastically increased.
As confirmed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, this has caused the biggest peacetime economic shock the UK has ever faced.
Because of this, the government has introduced a number of financial measures to support individuals during the pandemic, but most of the initial measures announced were aimed at businesses and individual employees.
However, after many campaigned for support to be introduced for those individuals who are self-employed, on 26 March he announced that a new package would be available in June 2020, which he suggested will offer financial support to around 95% of the self-employed population.
Whilst this is great news for some, our main concerns are that June 2020 is over 3 months away, which is a long time for self-employed individuals who are used to earning a significant living to go without income. Plus, this leaves 5% of the population unable to seek financial support other than the weekly £94.25 Universal Credit.
Furthermore, those who became self-employed after April 2019 do not appear to qualify for self-employed help due to HMRC using 2018/19 tax returns to calculate the payments.
At Shenward, we are committed to supporting our clients, and the wider business community, acting as their voice and campaigning for change.
In order for us to do this, we’re asking for your views and opinions via this survey around the measures announced, and an insight into your eligibility for the current support packages.
We appreciate that some of the information may be sensitive, and so we have made the survey completely anonymous for peace of mind. We will not ask your name, address, email or business name, so please do not enclose these.
Please only complete the survey once and answer only those questions which you feel comfortable answering. If at any point you feel uncomfortable, please exit the survey.
All of the data collected throughout this survey will be used in a collective manner to campaign for change, raising awareness across social media and in the press.
We would like to thank you in advance for your consent to use the answers by taking part and wish you well during this unprecedented time.
Remember; stay home, save lives.
Information about the latest government support can be viewed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses
Direct access to the survey can be obtained via this link https://forms.gle/RhyyWRjDuVFfgMmT6
