Question reference: S5W-35865
- Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 9 March 2021
-
Current status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 22 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide financial support to business owners who are otherwise ineligible for self-employment support due to having begun trading after March 2020, are ineligible for universal credit and have received no business rates-based support due to operating as a sole trader on another business ratepayer's premises.
Answer
We recognise the significant financial hardship that many of those who are newly self-employed have experienced over the past year as a result of being excluded from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) which is why we have introduced two separate rounds of the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund. These have paid out combined grants of £6,000 in total to support the many self-employed people in Scotland who were excluded from the UK Government’s Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) by virtue of being newly self-employed.
Limits on the amount of funding made available to the Scottish Government to provide financial support to businesses means that we are unable to contemplate further direct financial support for businesses or the self-employed without additional funding from the UK Government.