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Lack of support for small business owners in the UK is costing lives.
A few days ago Google threw up an article I was quoted in, dated in June 2020, lamenting the lack of support for UK small businesses from the Government. Here we are months later and almost a year since the first UK lockdown and the effects of that lack of support are starting to be seen in their raw ugliness. Around three million of us have still received not a penny to help with our own salaries or bills and we employ millions of people.
This is harder to bear when we look around and see others getting up to 80 per cent of their salaries paid via a furloughing scheme, others small businesses have got grants (sometimes several) to pay their bills and some self-employed have got their income paid and been allowed to work. The unfairness has been stark and the impact will be huge.
This week a company owner like me who didn’t qualify for any real support (because we’re directors of limited companies) took his own life. He was 38 years old. Ground down by no income for months, mounting debt and a collapsed business he opted out — right out and he’s not alone. How do I know this? I’m part of a campaign group for freelancers, people like me and others to get parity in terms of support. Not just loans. To my own personal knowledge this man is the 7th to have taken their own lives. How can this be right? How…
