Why government left self-employed with nothing and gave PAYE people 80%?

szyblaszczyk

Can somebody explain me this? This is just shocking. Is it just a temporary misunderstanding or it's happening for real?
All couriers, food delivery industry, carpenters, taxi drivers, electricians and many other millions of people are left without nothing. Please don't mention !!!!!! like Universal Credit. Having any savings means it's pointless to apply for that.
I understand to treat everybody like "okay so everybody now get 1000 pounds" but why "okay so you get 2000 and you get 0, !!!!!!"?

calcotti

szyblaszczyk said: Please don't mention !!!!!! like Universal Credit. Having any savings means it's pointless to apply for that.

You are only excluded from UC if you have savings over £16,000. Savings below £6,000 are ignored. Between these figures the amount of benefit payable is reduced by the savings (and could be nil as a result).

It’s not helpful to others visiting the forum for information to post misleading comments.

szyblaszczyk

calcotti said:

szyblaszczyk said: Please don't mention !!!!!! like Universal Credit. Having any savings means it's pointless to apply for that.

You are only excluded from UC if you have savings over £16,000. Savings below £6,000 are ignored. Between these figures the amount of benefit payable is reduced by the savings (and could be nil as a result).

It’s not helpful to others visiting the forum for information to post misleading comments.

So if PAYE employee will get this 80% so for example 2000 pounds, will he/she be excluded because has over 16 000 pounds savings? Or get less if has over 6000 savings?
Short answer is NO. So I'm asking. Why is that?
Also is less than 400 equal to 2000?

Jeremy535897

It will only be a relatively few lucky employees who will get "this 80%". Many are being sacked with nothing, moved on to zero hours contracts with no guarantee of work, forced to take big pay cuts or forced to work far fewer hours.

Linton

I think the reason why the self employed have not been included so far is simply a matter of “how?”. It is much easier to send money to an employee via an employer since who they both are and how much they should be paid is documented in tax records and the mechanisms for payment to the individuals already exist.  Not so easy with the self employed and much more difficult to police.

Duffers998

I am self employed and on Working Tax Credit, I understand there will be an increase on this but I'm confused as to eligibility. If you work less than 16 hours a week (which I will now due to Covid19) WTC is Nil!! If I claim Universal Credit now I'll not be able to return to WTC later and will lose £160 a month forever, talk about a Catch22!  Surely, given that I've sent Tax Returns for the past 9 years the HMRC can work out 80% of my earnings?

Iwanttobefree

I can't work due to long term health issues and am on ESA support group and PiP

My wife's a mobile hairdresser, a lot of her clients are elderly. They still want her to visit but she does not want one of their deaths to be on her head, because she unknowingly had the virus, hence passed it on to them.

So she has rightly made the decision not to visit anyone.  Her earnings are now zero

I have informed the DWP that on 6th April I am taking a lump sum out of my pension to clear the rest of our mortgage  and do a ton of essential house maintenance.  This doesn't affect my benefits, but until the virus is over,  we don't want people coming into our house to do whatever,  and until the work is done, we will have well over 6K in savings.

I can't take smaller amounts from my pension as it counts as regular income, it's all arranged for the 6th April.
From what I can see, that means my wife will get nothing?

 

Jeremy535897

I am afraid you are correct. I take it that your pension provider has confirmed that the amount you are taking from your pension is within the tax free lump sum rules? I ask because I am not clear as to the importance of waiting until 6 April, unless that happens to be the first day you can actually take it.

p00hsticks

Duffers998 said:

Surely, given that I've sent Tax Returns for the past 9 years the HMRC can work out 80% of my earnings?

But even if they had the latest tax return, for tax year 2018-19, it would only give information on your earnings twelve months ago. It says nothing about how your earnings are affected today. Although many self employed people are badly affected by COVID-19, there will be some (delivery drivers for example ?) who are not showing any loss of earnings and are in demand.

Yes, I agree that the government should be trying to do something for those self-employed who have been badly hit and are struggling - and Universal Credit provides that initial safety net. The difficulty for the government in putting anything else in place specifically for that sector is that you can't easily identify (and independently verify) how a self employed persons current earnings have been  affected in the same way you can for a PAYE employee.  

Some self employed people seem to be thinking that everyone on PAYE is now getting 80% of their salary paid by the government. They're not. Those that are still working are not. Those who are on sick leave are not. Those who have had hours reduced are  not. Those who had already been let go before this scheme was introduced are not. Those who work for an employer who simply decides not to apply for the scheme are not.

diggingdude

Those tax benefits for the self employed over the years are starting to bite back 

GLJ123

Hi 
Could anyone advise me if I would get penalised on my credit report if I stop paying finance on my cars ? VW Finance  I have called and been told as yet it is not possible to pause the payments.