CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak has won huge praise for the measures he has announced on support being made available to the self-employed.

It’s been announced that these workers will get 80 per cent of their self-employed net earnings in the form of a self-employment support grant.

Some pointed out that waiting till June isn’t ideal — but many were relieved just to have some help. The announcement was certainly welcome and will help many self-employed workers through these unprecedented times.

But a group of us were hanging onto that word the Chancellor frequently used: “majority.” Those that are “majority self-employed” would benefit.

It stuck with me and gave me a bad feeling. Upon further inspection it was clarified that 50 per cent of your income must come from self-employment for you to qualify for the grant.

It would stand to reason as an initial thought that this is to prevent people being able to access both the employed workers support and self-employed support, however what it actually means for those in this group is that they are discriminated against for having two income types, and can only get support for one part of that income.

Many people do not earn enough on an employed minimum wage alone, or a part-time contract. This is after all a time when underemployment is considered a global phenomenon.

To rectify this many look to ways to generate alternative extra income and become self-employed alongside their employment. For instance, 60 per cent of their income could come from employment, the other 40 per cent from “self-employment.”

For example, a full-time retail worker might in the evening work as a self-employed delivery driver. This would previously have been applauded as the right thing to do, to generate more income for yourself rather than expect the state to owe you a living.

But what it appears to mean in a global pandemic is that when you lose all your income you are only eligible for 80 per cent of 60 per cent. You don’t qualify for a self-employment support grant for the other 40 per cent of your pre-crisis income.

It seems that the government is still so preoccupied with ensuring people don’t get “too much” that it’s leaving large numbers with nowhere near enough.

On top of this, those that haven’t declared a profit for the last three years also miss out, despite HMRC advice that most new businesses wouldn’t turn a profit for at least two years. Further, those in their first year of self-employment are also not entitled to claim.

The eligibility criteria are as follows:

Your self-employed trading profits must be less than £50,000 and more than half of your income come from self-employment. This is determined by at least one of the following conditions being true:

• Having trading profits/partnership trading profits in 2018-19 of less than £50,000 and these profits constitute more than half of your total taxable income
• Having average trading profits in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 of less than £50,000 and these profits constitute more than half of your average taxable income in the same period

If you started trading between 2016-19, HMRC will only use those years for which you filed a self-assessment tax return.

So to be clear: if you rely on self-employment for 40 per cent of your income you aren’t eligible for that portion of your income. If you started your business in the last tax year you aren’t eligible. If you failed to make a profit on a new business in the last three years you aren’t eligible.

There are simple solutions to all three problems, but I can only guess whether the government is worried about “affordability” or if this is just an ill-thought-out measure announced to please the majority.

For those who fall through the gaps the only option is to claim universal credit, if you aren’t over the threshold on 80 per cent of your earnings from employment.

This means there are stark inequalities in how self-employed people are being treated. One could be receiving assistance of £600 a week, another as little as £91 a week.

Even the universal credit option has drawbacks. The benefits system cannot cope with the volume of claims being put in now.

Already short-staffed due to years of cuts, this is made worse as staff have to self-isolate after developing Covid-19 symptoms. There were over three million new claims recorded last week.

Many are not aware that if you are receiving any other social security that welfare support will be stopped if you apply for universal credit — including housing benefit, child tax credits, payments people rely on to get by week to week.

Then the five-week assessment period kicks in. Though claimants have been advised that they will get an advance payment, many don’t realise that their first payment will be assessed on the five weeks prior: when people will have received their last month’s pay or the self-employed will be receiving final invoices that they have been desperately chasing for work carried out.

We are also aware that the other announcements of support have not turned out to be what they seemed.

“Security for renters” and the three-month mortgage holiday announced are not as rosy as presented. Even the support for the employed appears to be causing confusion for so many and people are being left in destitution while being prevented from going out to work and earn an income.

This will continue to cause problems with people breaking the rules of self-isolation set by the government. The confusion causes genuine anxiety and people are turning on each other — pointing the blame in all directions except for the right one.

The systems they have put in place are simply nowhere near good enough.

They fail to support the worst off in society and are created around the idea that we are all untrustworthy. It is again a Conservative government that is putting money before lives and the measures it has put in place are full of inconsistencies.

The disparities in available support lead to workers working when it isn’t safe to do so and it is costing lives daily. The labour movement urgently needs to call out the gaps in government provision and fight for emergency measures that protect all workers’ incomes.

Mollie Brown is a member of the Communist Party executive, People’s Assembly north-east co-ordinating group and the National Assembly of Women.