SCOTLAND & FREELANCERS NEGLECTED
Graeme has called out Chancellor Rishi Sunak on both his failure to address gaps in business support where the self-employed are concerned and his reneging on a promised additional £375 million of such support for Scotland.
It follows the Chancellor’s latest announcement of funding to support businesses, which appears to leave major gaps in support for freelance workers. A UK Government press release had then stated that the funding would make an additional £375 million available for the Scottish Government.
“The Scottish Government will receive £375 million”, it said, “…on top of the increased funding which has already been guaranteed by the UK Government”. This was welcomed by the Scottish Conservatives, who demanded it be distributed “immediately”, only for the UK Government to quickly backtracked on the commitment – suggesting Scotland would receive no additional funding at all.
Their press release was altered overnight to remove references to the extra funding.
Graeme joins the SNP’s Shadow Chancellor at Westminster in demanding the UK Government hand over the £375 million as promised, as well as calling on Mr Sunak to fix the gaps that remain – gaps that have left millions of self-employed people ineligible for any support throughout the pandemic.
Commenting, he said:
It beggars belief that a long-overdue announcement of additional funding for business support in Scotland was revoked in a matter of hours – yet more withholding of crucial investment while further devolution of financial powers is blocked.
Any remaining credibility the Scottish Tories might have is at stake here – they welcomed this announcement, they said it was vital, but their Westminster bosses have rushed to retract it.
Add to this the fact that no effort has been made to fix the huge gaps leaving so many self-employed people ineligible. The responsibility for this lies squarely at the door of the UK Chancellor – freelancers have been neglected and Scotland is, as ever, neglected and missing £375 million.
Struggling people in Angus and across Scotland should not have to wait for a last minute U-turn, as we saw with furlough in the autumn – a U-turn that would surely come too late for many yet again.
As well as calling for the UK Government to plug the gaps in the business support, the SNP continues to call for the level of statutory sick pay to be raised and for the £20 Universal Credit uplift to be made permanent and extended to those on legacy benefits.
The SNP Westminster Leader, Ian Blackford, has repeatedly pressed the Prime Minister for support for the self-employed – calling on the UK government to introduce a package of measures including using the tax and welfare system to provide a guaranteed income for everyone, increasing UK Statutory Sick Pay to the EU national average, including self-employed people in the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and strengthening welfare protections by increasing Child Benefit and making Universal Credit more flexible.
The Resolution Foundation estimates that one in three people in self-employment, a total of 1.7 million, are at risk of losing their income – including around 330,000 in Scotland.
