The government has announced plans to increase support for the self-employed across the UK.

Under the third instalment of the UK-wide Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, the government says that self-employed workers will receive 80 per cent of average trading profits for November. The increase means that around £4.5 billion will distributed amongst self-employed workers between November and January.

The government has also pledged to process payments faster than previously planned, with the claims window opening at the end of November as opposed to the middle of December.

The changes are designed to ensure that self-employed individuals who temporarily cannot conduct business or have suffered reduced demand du etc the COVID-19 pandemic will be supported over winter. In addition, more businesses will be able to access additional support as deadlines for applications for government-backed loan schemes and the Future Fund have been further extended until January 31, 2021.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said: “So far we’ve provided £13.7 billion of support to self-employed people through the crisis – and I’ve always said we will continue to do everything we can to support livelihoods across the UK.

“The rapidly changing health picture has meant we have had to act in order to protect people’s lives and I know this is incredibly worrying time for the self-employed. That is why we have increased the generosity of the third grant, ensuring those who cannot trade or are facing decreased demand are able to get through the months ahead.”

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The live music and events industry has been devastated by the pandemic, with venues, events and all manner of technical professionals effectively out of work since March with no return for the sector in sight. This has had a major impact on all areas of business, but the self-employed have been hit especially hard. A recent report by industry umbrella group LIVE indicated that 144,000 of the 210,000 self-employed and freelance workers across the sector will have lost their jobs by the end of the year. Approximately half of the sector’s 52,200 permanently employed staff are also expected to lose their jobs. 

While the government has created a £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the arts sector through the pandemic, it is widely considered across the industry that this will not be sufficient to prevent hundreds of thousands from losing their jobs. So far it is thought to have saved around 10,000 full-time jobs.