Dear Contractor, 

Unsurprisingly, the team at Dasa Umbrella have been inundated with calls from contractors asking if they are eligible for any of the emergency financial measures implemented by the Government last week to counteract the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. At the time of writing on Tuesday 24th March 2020, self-employed individuals, sole traders and agency workers are still nervously awaiting further directives from the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, as to how he is going to help the estimated five million people potentially affected by loss of income during the crisis.

Last week, the Chancellor announced the creation of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to enable employers to claim at least 80% of workers' salaries in an attempt to prevent mass job losses. Details of the scheme are still being ironed out, but it is assumed it will be activated by the end of this week and administered via the PAYE tax system; this is a far simpler undertaking than calculating and assessing the income of those paid via other arrangements. To find out more about this scheme and if you qualify, please click the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19

Further announcements with regards to payments and financial assistance for the self-employed and the contractor workforce are anticipated in the next 48 hours, so please keep an eye on our Blog where we will publish updates as soon as we have them.

In the meantime, contractors are advised to consider some of the following options:

• Claim £94.25 per week Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if you are forced to stay at home as a result of COVID-19.
  These payments are paid for up to 28 weeks. To find out more, click the link below:
  https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay
  
  
• Register immediately for Universal Credit via the following link:
  https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit

• If a homeowner, contact your Mortgage provider and request a three month payment holiday.
• If renting, contact your Landlords or Management Company and request deferment on rental payments.

The Government website also includes detailed guidance and advice for all workers as to their entitlements and is updated daily.

We encourage all workers to visit https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus to find out how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting them and what to do during these extremely challenging times.

As previously mentioned, we will provide further information as soon as we have it.

In the meantime, stay safe and look after one another.

Please stay safe.

Naks Atheeq
Head of Finance
Dasa Umbrella Limited