Trade bodies present £15bn plan
A group of more than 30 trade bodies, including Bectu, ScreenSkills and Directors UK, have submitted a letter to the chancellor with a £15bn income plan to help freelancers during the coronavirus crisis.
The letter, overseen by the Creative Industries Federation chief executive Caroline Norbury, highlighted the “worrying inequality” being created between the employed and the UK’s community of 5 million self-employed workers and freelancers.
In the government’s “unprecedented economic package”, outlined on Friday, chancellor Rishi Sunak said all businesses could receive 80% of wages for employees that cannot work due to the pandemic, but a similar measure is not in place for the self-employed.
Instead, the self-employed are being given access to Universal Credit, but this takes five weeks to kick in and is only around £92 per week.
The 30 trade bodies are therefore pushing for the creation of a £15bn Temporary Income Protection Fund, which would provide all self-employed workers with a monthly income matching their average earnings over the past three years. The payments would be capped at average UK earnings with a minimum monthly income of the real living wage.
”Our self-employed workforce are a source of incredible creativity, agility, and innovation,” said today’s letter.
“It is vital that they receive support equal to employees and collectively explore, given this difficult time, how such talent could be employed and redeployed to help the national effort.”
Bectu’s survey last week found that almost half of the UK’s creative sector freelancers have already lost money due to the coronavirus crisis, with some predicting losses of up to £40,000 over the coming months.
This article first appeared on our sister site, Broadcast.
Also on The Knowledge
HETV Fund to boost skills support for high-end unscripted
The High-end TV (HETV) Skills Council is setting up a new working group dedicated to the needs of specialist workforce skills within high-end unscripted television.
Cameras due to roll in Liverpool on BBC drama
Filming is due to begin around now in Liverpool on This City is Ours, a sweeping new BBC One crime drama from Stephen Butchard and Left Bank Pictures.
Production gets underway on Everyone Else Burns S2
Production is due to get underway in the next week in Manchester on the second series of Everyone Else Burns.
C5 greenlights mystery thriller The Wives
Production is underway on a new C5 thriller, The Wives, starring Jo Joyner, Angela Griffin and Tamzin Outhwaite.
Filming underway on Sky’s Lockerbie drama starring Colin Firth
Production has begun on a major new drama about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, starring Colin Firth as Dr Jim Swire.
Studios Spotlight – Behind the scenes at Pride Media Centre
The last Studios Spotlight of 2023 shines on Pride Media Centre in Gateshead, a “safe, welcoming space for businesses and organisations from the LGBT+ community and allies, to grow, develop and be creative”.