Rishi Sunak, the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, has recently proposed a grant which helps to support self-employed workers during the Covid-19 crisis, with the Government paying up to 80% of earnings who usually make £50K trading profit or less in one lump-sum. However, the scheme has a number of flaws which means that many self-employed workers, and particularly childminders, will either miss out on the funding or receive a grant that is considerably less than can be sustained on.

Gaps in the scheme:

Businesses set up within the last financial year are not entitled to any support, and those who have been operating for fewer than three years would receive considerably less than the 80% promised. In the year to November 2019 to January 2020, 194,000 begun self-employed work and would not access this grant. We are calling for the Government to open the scheme to ALL self-employed workers, regardless of when they started working. Workers should be able use invoices to prove projected incomes where tax declarations have not yet been submitted.

Misrepresentation of earnings:

The grant is calculated on profits rather than income. The childminding profession in particular is an activity that yields high operating costs, and as such lower profits than other self-employed professions. Many of the deductible expenses incurred by childminders during their work are costs that need to be paid regardless of whether they are taking care of children, such as rents and utilities. We are calling for the Government to reassess this part of the scheme to consider these unavoidable costs.

No other options:

We have spoken to many childminders who say that the grants they would be entitled to (if any) wouldn’t be enough to cover their rents and bills. Some are ineligible for Universal Credit, and either need to rely on families’ goodwill to cover a portion of their fees even if the child is not being looked after, or seek alternative employment in an already difficult situation. We can imagine that this situation is similar across other industries which rely on self-employed individuals. We are calling for the Government to ensure alternative options are sufficient enough for ALL self-employed workers and childminders to be able to manage through this period.