Recommendation 2

HM Government Acknowledged

15. We recommend that the Government reviews the coverage of current support to make sure that the greatest support is provided to those individuals facing most hardship, and that any gaps in provision are addressed. We expect the Chancellor to announce measures to this effect in his Budget statement next week. (Paragraph 22) 16. Since the publication of your report, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has set out the Spring Budget 2021, announcing the next phase of economic support. The Budget seeks to protect the jobs and livelihoods of the British people by providing security and certainty for the hardest hit sectors and workers across the UK, and boosting investment and growth as the economy recovers. 17. Considering the significant support confirmed at the Spending Review 2020 and the Spring Budget 2021, total support for the economy is £352bn across 2020/21 and 2021/22 (or around 17% of 2020 GDP). Once also accounting for support provided at Spring Budget 2020, which includes a step change in capital investment, total fiscal stimulus comes to £407 billion. The 2021 Budget lays the foundations for a strong recovery and greener economy, levelling-up the country and spreading prosperity across every part of the UK. 18. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has already helped to pay the wages of people in 11.4 million jobs across the country, with more than £53 billion paid out in grants across the UK, protecting jobs that might otherwise have been lost. The Self- Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) has paid out almost £20 billion in grants to 2.7 million self-employed individuals whose businesses have been adversely affected by Covid-19. 19. To support businesses and employees through the next stage of the pandemic, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the extension of the CJRS and SEISS until September. As part of this announcement, the Government has extended the Real Time Information (RTI) cut-off date for the CJRS from 30 October 2020 to 2 March 2021, so that those employed on 2 March 2021 are eligible for claims starting on 1 May 2021. Based on early estimates, this means around 2.4 million more employees, are potentially eligible for CJRS. In addition, SEISS will continue until September with a fourth and fifth grant, and around 600,000 more self-employed individuals may be able to qualify for the new SEISS grants based on their 2019–20 tax returns. This includes many new to self-employment in 2019–20 and brings the total who are potentially eligible to 3.7 million. The fifth and final grant opens for claims in July and will include a turnover test, known as a Financial Impact Declaration (FID), to ensure that the most generous support is targeted at those who need it most. 20. The Government has also announced a new Restart Grant of up to £18,000 to over 680,000 business premises, giving small business owners the cash certainty they need to plan ahead and relaunch trading safely and effectively over the coming months. An additional £425 million of discretionary business grant funding on top of the £1.6 billion already allocated is being provided to English local authorities. This comes in addition to the extension of the previous VAT reductions and business rates reliefs for sectors heavily impacted by the pandemic, and the temporary £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit Standard allowance for a further 6 months. The Government has recently further announced a £500 one-off payment to provide support to eligible Working Tax Credit claimants. 21. The Government has acted to upgrade existing programmes where it can to make them more inclusive. Throughout the duration of the pandemic, the Government has continuously reviewed Real Time Information cut-off dates to include as many employees as possible into the scope of the CJRS. When the CJRS was extended in October 2020, the Real Time Information cut-off date was moved from 19 March to 30 October 2020, resulting in 4.8 million being brought into scope of the scheme, and in April 2020 the cut- off was extended from 28 February to 19 March, bringing over 200,000 employees into scope of the scheme. 22. For the SEISS, the Government amended the terms to allow claims from self-employed parents who did not submit a tax return for 2018–19, or whose trading profits in 2018–19 were less than their other income because they were pregnant or taking time out of their trade to care for their new-born or newly adopted child. The Government also opened the SEISS to self-employed army, navy and air force reservists who were previously ineligible as a result of their service. 23. We recognise that some of the eligibility criteria and conditions that are vital to ensuring that these specific schemes worked for the vast majority meant that, in some hard cases, some people did not qualify for the CJRS or SEISS. The schemes were designed with two principles in mind: i) First, the need to target support at those who need it most. To achieve that, the Go