I agree with my hon. Friend. Numerous freelancers did not have a financial buffer and, unlike employees, were not entitled to be furloughed. We must not forget the small business owners who pay themselves mostly in dividends and earn under the threshold. It is often a more flexible way of payment that can keep money in their businesses to keep them going—many have used dividend payments to legally mitigate their tax payments—but there has to be some encouragement for entrepreneurs taking risks and setting up businesses and employing people.
Our SMEs provide the backbone of our great nation. The Government rightly took the bold and necessary decisions to provide an exceptional package of financial
support to businesses up and down our land, but now the Government must go further and consider the support given to our freelancers and self-employed as we turbo-charge our economy out of the pandemic. For we as a community will look for our creative freelancers once all this is over to lift our spirits once more and inspire us into happier, healthy and more prosperous days.
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