Alison Mitchell, Chair of the Cricket Writers’ Club writes:
On Friday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced the government will pay 80% of the salary of retained workers, up to a total of £2,500 per month. The measures for self-employed freelancers however, still don’t go far enough.
The government has recognised our letter and assured us that they know freelancers have been hit.
We will continue to liaise with the government and push for the measures we need and keep you all updated. Our Collective will consult over the weekend and discuss where we would like to see changes and how these measures will help or impact freelancers.
Measures to support freelancers now include:
- Access to Universal Credit to be paid at the rate of Statutory Sick Pay £94.25/week.
- Deferral of this quarter’s VAT payments to June 2020 (Remember all taxes will still need to be paid, just at a later date, alongside the other taxes that will be due at that time)
- Renters have been helped with £1bn of support, increasing housing benefit and Universal Credit so that Local Housing Allowance will cover at least 30% of market rents in an area
- Anyone can seek to defer their mortgage payments by 3 months (be aware your mortgage payments may then be higher when you do resume payments, depending on your arrangements)
- Deferral of Self-Assessment income tax from July 2020 to January 2021 (remember your tax will still need to be paid, it will just be due later, along with any other tax due at that time)
There is a lot to unpick about how some of this will apply specifically. Particularly to those freelancers who are part ‘PAYE employed for tax purposes’ and part self-employed.
IPSE have updated their site
All details are outlined here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
And this is a useful article: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/20/self-employed-coronavirus-crisis-sick-pay-redundancy-benefits
Any freelancer who wants to sign up for the Sports Freelancer Collective and be added to the mailing list should email philippe.auclair.fwa@gmail.com