Is it right to make use of a support scheme even if your finances are holding up during lockdown?
The lockdown has affected all of us, but the way that it has impacted our work varies enormously.
For example, my next door neighbour works for a major breakdown firm, out on the roads helping stranded motorists. With so few cars now on the road ‒ and therefore fewer drivers ending up needing breakdown assistance ‒ his working habits have changed drastically.
My neighbour on the other side is a plumber, and has similarly been left in a position where he cannot really work.
But me? I worked from home before Coronavirus struck, so my working habits are largely unchanged, beyond a little more distraction from having the kids at home all the time.
And I’ve been enormously lucky in that, at the risk of tempting fate, the volume of work coming my way isn’t particularly different to that time long ago when he could leave the house of our own accord.
I have very little to complain about, and am well aware of how fortunate I am.
Help for those that need it
Nonetheless, I’ve taken a keen interest in the support on offer to those people like me ‒ and my plumber neighbour ‒ who are self employed.
While the Government was quick to act in order to secure a large chunk of the incomes enjoyed by regular employees, it took far longer to get a plan together over how to support those who work for themselves.
The Self Employment Income Support Scheme finally launches next week, and provides a similar safety net to the self-employed as that enjoyed by normal employees, in the form of a taxable grant worth 80% of their regular profits so long as they don’t tend to earn above £50,000 a year and have been self-employed for at least a year.
While it’s far from ideal that millions of self-employed people have had to find a way to make ends meet up to now ‒ as well as the fact that plenty of self-employed workers are not going to be able to claim ‒it is a relief that this scheme is now available.
To claim or not to claim, that is the question
My business has been impacted by the Coronavirus, in that I have turned down work ‒ and worked fewer hours than usual ‒ in order to help with looking after the kids. And I am probably eligible to put in a claim.
Yet I’m torn on whether that’s really the right thing to do. I’ve been really lucky in that I work in an industry where I can still carry on much as usual, and that the work which has come in has been more than sufficient to cover for my family. It doesn’t really feel like this scheme has been designed with people like me in mind.
But then there are still big question marks over the future. Who is to say that just because I’ve got through this phase OK, the work isn’t about to dry up? Or that the publishers and businesses I’ve worked with over the last month or so are even going to be able to pay me what they owe?
Even when the economy was rosy, getting paid on time was a constant battle for small businesses like mine. It would be naive of me in the extreme to expect things to improve now that the world has changed.
And then there’s the fact that even if I didn’t claim, it’s not like the money would instead go to another small-time, worried self-employed worker instead. It either gets paid out to me, or it sits in the Treasury coffers.
Don’t be ‘selfish’
I’m sure that part of my discomfort here comes from the mortgage payment holidays which lenders have agreed to offer.
I have seen a number of figures in the industry chastise borrowers who have opted for a holiday who are still able to pay their mortgage currently, accusing them of being ‘selfish’ and taking help away from those that really need it.
Realistically I was never going to ask for a mortgage holiday if I could avoid it, since it is only going to make paying off the overall mortgage more expensive.
But I was genuinely taken aback at how harshly some view those worried borrowers who are making use of a form of support that is available to them, at a time of such massive uncertainty.
It’s difficult not to see this self-employed support scheme through a similar prism. It’s available to me, and would provide me with a little breathing space, clearing some worries if only for a short period.
But given others need it far more than I do, it feels almost uncomfortable to use it.
I haven't decided yet whether I should make a claim. But I am much clearer in my hope that the messaging about the scheme is effective and reaches those self-employed workers who haven’t been able to work since the lockdown began, the people who are really struggling on a day-to-day basis right now. Because they are the ones truly relying on this scheme to make a difference.