Bectu labelled government support for freelancers, “not good enough” following the recent budget.
On March 16 the Creatives Federation responded starkly to the government announcement that advised that members of the public to avoid social gatherings, Caroline Norbury, CEO of the Creative Industries Federation and Creative England, said:
“The advice issued by government today is a crippling blow to the UK’s creative industries. As the social distancing measures announced this afternoon are only advisory, rather than an outright ban, we are deeply concerned that creative organisations and cultural spaces will find they are unable to claim compensation for the huge losses they will experience as a result of COVID-19. Public safety remains the top priority for everyone in the creative sector. However, these measures have the potential to devastate the UK’s theatres, museums, cinemas, venues and other cultural spaces reliant on audiences, visitors and participation, as well as the huge array of creators and freelancers who work within these industries. For the sake of our £111.7 billion creative industries, it is vital that government puts in place support to ensure that our world-leading creative sector is able to survive COVID-19″
Head of BECTU Philippa Childs said on the delivery of the budget last week: “The chancellor’s measures for freelancers, removing the income floor and the need to attend a job centre interview, are welcome but using Universal Credit to deliver this help is simply not up to the scale of the challenge. The universal credit system has been shown time and time again to lack the robustness to cope with any form of change in demand, so to use it to deliver this help is short-sighted in the extreme.”
Childs added… if you are a freelance you get left behind. It isn’t good enough and the government needs to rethink this plan and put in place a proper support package for freelances before it’s too late.”
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