EAST Renfrewshire's MP has called for the UK chancellor to do more for workers who are not covered by income protection schemes during the pandemic.

Kirsten Oswald wrote to Rishi Sunak MP on Friday and welcomed the measures put in place last month but said too many self-employed residents and small businesses would not be covered.

She called for 80 per cent weekly income at the rate of minimum wage for six months for workers who don't fit into the existing plans for businesses who furlough workers or self-employed. She also said there should be a permanent increase in statutory sick pay to the same level for a minimum of two weeks.

And the SNP MP said options for a universal basic income should be looked at.

Ms Oswald said: "The UK Government has consistently said it would do whatever it takes to tackle the crisis and that it would help individuals, businesses and the most vulnerable.

"This, however, is not the experience of many businesses and participants in the labour market, including the 40 per cent of self-employed people and contract workers who do not have the financial assets to cover their expenses for the three-month period.

"It has become clear from my constituency work over past weeks that there are an increasing number of groups within the workforce who are excluded from the income protection offered."

 

 

Ms Oswald said, despite the job retention scheme and self-employment income support scheme, issues in East Renfrewshire included:

  • those employed through agencies or umbrella companies unsure of what proportion of income would be covered;
  • those intermittently employed on PAYE contracts, such as in creative industries, who have been caught out in a period of downtime and will get no support;
  • those on zero-hour PAYE contracts who have lost hours but not been furloughed;
  • those due to start a PAYE job but the start date is after the that of the job retention scheme;
  • recently self-employed;
  • those who are part-time PAYE and part self-employed;
  • directors of small companies and owners of recent business start-ups.

Ms Oswald said the examples in her constituency were proof of the "structural divisions" in the labour market being made worse by the pandemic.

She wrote: "Far from being world-leading, these packages of support reflect a harking back to simpler days, when there were business owners, and separately there were members of the workforce, who were either directly employed or who operated on a self-employed basis, but had one stable occupation that they stayed in for many years.

"It is clear the world of work and business in the UK is no longer like that."

She concludes: "Recovery from the pandemic will best be achieved if as few people as possible are left feeling as though they have been cast aside as we go through this crisis and start to rebuild lives and the economy."

The Treasury has been approached for comment.

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