Please give the self employed equal pay rights during the Coronavirus pandemic. We the self-employed want to work, but our work is being cancelled.

We are people who include:

the editors, camera and sound operators and producers who make the TV programmes you watch;

the feature writers, copywriters, photographers and graphic designers who provide the articles, information, graphics and photographs on the websites and magazines you read;

the plumbers, builders, fencers, electricians, and tradespeople who do all the repairs you need in your home;

the barbers, hairdressers, personal trainers you are not going to right now;

the cleaners, dog walkers, childminders you are cancelling.

We are not asking for special treatment. We want the same treatment as the rest of you. We are 1 in 7 of the workforce. We are 5 million people. We need your support.

We cannot manage on £317 a month Universal Credit or £498 for couples even with a 3 month mortgage holiday because we are not entitled to any other benefits. Like everyone else we have kids, elderly relatives, we have underlying conditions.

While many people are entitled to 80% pay or £2,500 a month per person, £5,000 per couple, we cannot manage on one tenth of that. Our unions say this treatment is “cruel and unfair”.

Please sign this petition to ask the Chancellor Rishi Sunak to give self-employed people the same rights as employed people to 80% of their pay. And please remember we are part of society too – providing important services.