Grant for close contact workers

My wife is a driving instructor. She had not received one single pence since lockdown began. Not only do we need money to pay the rent, buy food and pay our bills, when she returns to work her car needs to be adapted with a plastic screen between her and her learner drivers. Supermarket checkouts have them, bus drivers already have them. There needs to be a programme instigated where every model of car being used can have a screen fitted. Taxi drivers also have them between the front and the back however, most Driving Instructors use their cars as family cars outside of working hours. The DVSA suspended all tests until August. This industry has slipped through the gaps of the UK governments plan to help small businesses.

Why the contribution is important

When the DVSA suspended all driving tests the Driving Instruction industry immediately and abruptly halted. We need emergency funds for us just to survive and protection from infection from close contact work (in cars) when we do return. Please prioritise help for this industry, it's workers have been left hanging. We can't fall into the Universal Credit trap that has been set by Westminster so we are effectively left penniless, relying on food banks and family donations to survive and pay the never ending bills that arrive.

by Nast999 on May 09, 2020 at 10:20AM

Current Rating

Average rating: 2.5
Based on: 6 votes

Comments

  • Posted by Iona May 09, 2020 at 10:50

    I am a self employed Beauty Therapist who can relate. With having no income now for nearly 8 weeks, I closed my bookings a week before lock down and have since had no income through my services I usually offer, my application through Universal Credits was a £0 due to my household income through my partner. We are independent financially but now I am having to ask for assistance through him rather than what I should be entitled to, as like every tax payer. In order to make my business survive financially I have managed to be creative and adapt to online retailing but with very little profit to be spending on these items or time to do online PPE etc training that may be essential for our businesses to be allowed to operate in the future.
  • Posted by Iona May 09, 2020 at 10:55

    The money is self employed may get in June that they are calling a "grant" is just worked on the basis of 80% of our average profit so just like the average Employee would earn their furlough income they are entitled to. This money is not our budget for running out businesses, this money is what we need to pay our household bills and living costs. We need lots of grants available to allow businesses to have a budget for allowing for these PPE items, training and to operate in their very different ways. If you are a service based job then you are very likely to be using a lot more time per customer and maybe even 1 per day so there needs to be financial help in place
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