MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2020) The UK government is working to establish a financial aid package for freelancers and self-employed people who are unable to work due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday amid opposition pressure due to the lack of measures enacted to date.
"There are particular complexities about the self-employed which do need to be addressed ... All I can say is that we are working as fast as we possibly can to get the appropriate package of support for everybody in this country," the prime minister stated in the House of Commons, adding that measures would be announced in the coming days.
Johnson faced questions from outgoing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons, Ian Blackford, over the omission of millions of self-employed workers and freelancers from a government economic stimulus package announced on Friday.
In particular, Blackford referred to similar measures to support self-employed people and freelancers introduced in countries such as Germany, Denmark, and Norway.
Throughout the parliamentary session, the prime minister praised the work of his government and the entire country to meet the economic challenges of the epidemiological crisis and its economic impact.
"We're doing a quite extraordinary thing, which is for the first time in our history, to get through this crisis, we are putting our arms as a country around every single worker, every single employee in this country, and it is a quite unprecedented step," he stated.
On March 17, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the allocation of 330 billion Pounds ($390 billion) to support businesses affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The chancellor followed up this measure on Friday by announcing that employees unable to work amid the ongoing global pandemic will be eligible to receive up to 80 percent of their wages, with a limit of 2,500 pounds a month, from the government.
