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Shoppers are being urged to buy early this year for online Christmas gifts. With three months to go before the big day, the online retail industry is gearing up for a a huge surge in demand.It’s warning that firms may struggle to cope if we leave all our festive shopping till the last minute.”We think the volumes are going to be really very excessive this year,” said Andy Mulcahy from IMRG, the industry body for online retailers.”Whilst that in itself is not a problem, getting too much of it too close to Christmas is going to be a bit of a problem,” he said.”If you can spread out your shopping and do quite a lot of it in November, maybe even a bit of it now, then that would really help.”Even before lockdown, online sales in the first months of 2020 were roughly 5% higher than last year. ‘No need to panic buy’But since Covid-19 hit, the numbers have soared, with growth rates of around 40-50%, according to IMRG. And they’ve remained high ever since.”At this point, I think we can expect an increase of at least 30% for the peak festive trading season, but if stores have to close this might push to 50%, ” Mr Mulcahy thinks. But he stressed that here’s no need for shoppers to panic buy – as there’s still plenty of time before the big day.So how will retailers and logistics companies manage this huge potential uplift in the run up to Christmas? “It’s been like Christmas for the last six months for us,” said Mike Hancox, the boss of delivery firm Yodel.It is one of the UK’s biggest parcel couriers handling more than 150 million packages a year. But it had to adapt quickly in March, even partnering with taxi firms at one stage to help deliver the extra packages. Yodel’s now preparing for a period of sustained demand this autumn and winter as shoppers flock online for convenience as social distancing restrictions remain in place. It’s adding 2,500 self-employed drivers and nearly 500 staff in its sorting centres across the UK to bolter its operations.”We think it will be the biggest online Christmas ever, by some way,” Mr Hancox said. “Certainly at Yodel it will be our biggest ever year. We’re planning for success and I think every other delivery carrier will be expecting the same.”He’s planning on handling a million extra parcels in the busiest week. But with rising unemployment and uncertainty over future coronavirus measures, many families may feel less able or willing to spend. The boss of Boots, Seb James, admits he “just doesn’t know” what demand will look like – but there are three things he does feel sure about. “Firstly, it will be much more online, so we’ve tripled our online capacity,” he said.”The second thing is people are going to be much more anxious about money so value is going to be much more important this Christmas. “And the third thing is that everyone has to shop safely… we won’t be able to cram people in as we normally do at Christmas, we have to be very careful,” he said.One of its new safety measures will be bookable out-of-hours shopping slots for customers over 60. Boots is also going early with some festive ranges, which are already in stores. Mr James says this was in response to customer demand. “I think people are planning ahead and they’re right to do so. Last minute cramming is just not going to work… we hope that people will spread out their shopping.”John Lewis’s online Christmas shop opened in August after a spike in searches by customers. And it has already seen a surge in sales for some products. The company says sales of trees were up 233% at the end of last week, compared with the previous year. Christmas decorations, meanwhile, were up 156%. Who knows how jolly this festive season will be. But one thing seems clear, it will be the most digital one yet for shopping.

Shoppers will feel the impact of a no-deal Brexit at supermarket tills, the British Retail Consortium has warned.The BRC said tariffs would add £3.1bn a year to the cost of importing food and drink unless the UK and EU can strike a free trade agreement.”If there is no deal before Christmas, the increase in tariffs will leave retailers with nowhere to go other than to raise the price of food,” it said.The government said it was “working hard” to reach a deal.Andrew Opie, director of food at the BRC, said coronavirus was “already making life hard for consumers”, particularly those on lower incomes.”A no-deal Brexit will have a massive impact on their ability to afford essential goods,” he added.The EU is the UK’s largest trading partner and the source of 80% of its food, the BRC said.But if the UK is unable to reach a deal with the bloc, the average tariff on food it imports would be over 20%, the trade body warned.Those tariffs include a 48% levy on beef mince, 16% on cucumbers and 57% on cheddar cheese.Under a new tariff schedule, set to come into effect in January, 85% of food imports from the EU will be subject to a tariff of more than 5%, the BRC said.The longstanding post-Brexit promise is of free trade deals that will decrease taxes on imports – called tariffs – and lower prices for consumers. But should no trade deal be reached with the EU, from January, one of the most noticeable impacts will be the new UK Global Tariff applying to imports of food and drink from the EU. Understandably, supermarkets have worked out the cost of applying these new tariffs in this British Retail Consortium exercise on their own supply chain data – the total is £3.1bn next year, versus zero this year. That is worth about £112 per household. As an illustration, if the entire cost of the tariff were passed on to consumers a £3 pack of Irish beef mince could cost £4.08 and Spanish cucumbers could cost 47p instead of 43p.In practice, some – but not all – these cost increases would be passed on, and some lower tariffs on imports from other places could offset those rises.But concerns about tariffs on EU food and drink imports are one of the issues troubling retailers. The BRC also said increases in “physical checks, paperwork, and other non-tariff barriers” will further push up the cost for retailers.”With coronavirus affecting the livelihoods of millions of people in the UK, many households can ill afford higher prices for their weekly food shop,” it said.It claimed that the UK grocery sector is “one of the most competitive in the world”, operating on tight margins. As a result, it said, any additional costs would be passed on to customers. “UK consumers have benefitted from great value, quality, and choice of food thanks to our ability to trade tariff free with the EU,” Mr Opie said. “There is now the risk of a £3bn tax bill for the food we cannot source here in the UK.”A government spokeswoman said: “Negotiations are ongoing and discussions will be continuing at the next formal round in Brussels next week.””The UK is a significant importer of food and other goods, and avoiding tariffs should be beneficial to both sides, particularly given our shared commitment to high regulatory standards.

Chandler Guo was a pioneer in cryptocurrency, the digital currencies that can be created and used independently of national central banks and governments.In 2014 he set up an operation to produce one of those currencies, Bitcoin, in a secret location in western China.”Mining” Bitcoin is a power hungry enterprise involving dozens of computers so he used power from a hydroelectric station, in partnership with a local Chinese government official.At its peak his machines were capable of mining 30% of the world’s Bitcoin. He believed Bitcoin would one day change the world and replace the dollar.But now he sees a new force emerging – a payment system created by the Chinese state and known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP). It’s really a digital version of China’s official currency, the yuan, and Mr Guo feels DCEP will become the dominant global currency. “One day everyone in the world will be using DCEP,” he says.”DCEP will be successful because there are a lot of Chinese people living outside of China – there are 39 million Chinese living outside of the country.”If they have a connection with China they will use the DCEP. They can make DCEP become an international currency.”But many question whether it will succeed and there are concerns that it will be used by Beijing to spy on citizens.
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Like Bitcoin, DCEP utilises a blockchain technology, a type of digitised ledger used to verify transactions.Blockchain acts as a universal record of every transaction ever made on that network, and users collaborate to verify new transactions when they occur.In practice, that means users don’t need a bank if, for example, they want to pay each other, perhaps with their phones.China plans to launch DCEP later this year. But so far, the People’s Bank of China has not given an exact date for the nationwide launch.China began testing the digital currency earlier this year in selected cities. When rolled out it will allow users to link downloaded electronic wallets to their bank cards, make transactions and transfer money.”It’s hard to predict the timeline but the People’s Bank of China is under a lot of pressure to accelerate the development because they do not want to be in a world where Libra (Facebook’s digital currency) becomes the global currency, which they think is worse than the current global financial system controlled by the US,” says Linghao Bao, an analyst from Beijing-based Trivium.Observers say China wants to internationalise the yuan so that it can compete with the dollar.”The Chinese government believes that if some other countries can also use the Chinese currency it can break the United States’ monetary sovereignty. The United States has built the current global financial system and the instruments,” says an anonymous Chinese cryptocurrency observer known as Bitfool.The technology enthusiast worked in the venture capital sector before joining a number of Chinese internet companies. He started researching Bitcoin and believes that digital currencies represent the future of money.More Technology of Business”Some traditional banking systems can’t serve a poor country. In the traditional system, if you only have $10 a bank can’t make money from you, but with digital currency, everyone has the right to enter. The threshold to enter is really low,” he says.Although Facebook has scaled back its plans for Libra, it was still a concern for China. The social media giant plans to roll out an e-wallet known as Novi later this year. It will work as a standalone app but can also be available on Messenger and WhatsApp.”The two sides are definitely involved in financial warfare even though no large confrontation has happened yet,” says Linghao Bao.Observers like Bitfool believe that China is already further ahead of the US in the battle for the future of money.China’s digital payment systems are widely seen as the most advanced in the world.The country is on the verge of becoming a cashless society. In 2019, four out of every five payments in China were made through either Tencent’s WeChat Pay or Alibaba’s Alipay.”America is the leader of the global financial system. But they don’t have the motivation like China to make the change [to a digital currency],” says Bitfool.”China wants to share that power. But for America, Libra is just a backup plan.”In poor countries and also in China there are a lot of people who live in villages. They have very little money but they are using smartphones. If you can buy a smartphone you can use DCEP.”However, DCEP will be centralised and state-run, unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum which are free of state control.Many Bitcoin enthusiasts fear that DCEP will be used as a tool by the Chinese Communist Party to exert greater control over their citizens through surveillance. The authorities will be able to monitor how money is spent in real time. They will also have the same controls over DCEP as with the yuan.The yuan is tightly controlled by Beijing and its exchange rate is the source of much tension between the US and China. The US accuses China of keeping the yuan weak to benefit its economy.”DCEP is the antithesis of Bitcoin. The ultimate goal of a cryptocurrency is the separation of money and state,” says Stewart Mackenzie, a cryptocurrency expert based in Hong Kong. “It’s easy for them to say that it’s like Bitcoin when it’s worlds apart.”Linghao Bao agrees. “DCEP is built on an idea of centralised control. The value of Bitcoin lies in its decentralisation nature and its isolation from the financial system,” Mr Bao says.”I trust Bitcoin more. Because it really belongs to me,” says Bitfool.

By Nicky FordBBC NewsRelated TopicsCoronavirus pandemicimage copyrightEPACoronavirus has created a £2.3bn black hole of spending in central London, new research has suggested.Data from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) underlined how spending in businesses near central London workplaces had been “lost or displaced” between March and July.This week new government restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19 saw working at home recommended again.Businesses in The City said they have been “struggling” with workers absent.’You don’t see regulars’Satyam Patel, who has run the Corner Shop in Bow Lane for 35 years, said he now saw 50 customers a day compared with 800 before lockdown.”Trade’s down 90%, it’s very demoralising,” he said. “You’re just wondering what’s going to happen and where you’re going to end up.”You don’t see regular customers anymore. There are so many customers you don’t see and you wonder where they are and how they are.”The CEBR looked at Google mobility data, which showed the number of people going to work in London in April during the height of the lockdown was 77% lower than before the crisis. It also used research by the payment app iZettle and data from Nationwide Building Society to calculate a monthly spend of £202 by employees near their place of work before lockdown.Nina Skero, chief executive of the CEBR, said: “During the months of March to July virtually everybody that could was working from home, so we estimate that the lost spending during that period was more than £500m per month because all of the spending on restaurants, hairdressers and other services was almost entirely lost as people were confined to their homes.”Prime Minister Boris Johnson told people to go back to work in August, amid warnings from business leaders that city centres could become ghost towns.That message changed on Tuesday as the government urged people to work from home where possible to control the spread of coronavirus. JMW Solicitors, which is based in the City, brought 40% of its office staff back and said it had helped with productivity. Lee Adams, a partner in the firm, said: “The number of ideas that come out when you have people collaboratively working in the same space are just much more tangible than perhaps emails flying around or zoom calls that are a bit more stilted.”But with the government guidance having changed the company said it would be looking at its policies again. On Tuesday the investment bank Barclays told hundreds of its UK staff to return to home working in response to the prime minister’s comments.In May several companies, including Google and Facebook, told staff to work from home until the end of the year. Twitter said staff could work from home “forever” if they wished to.Related TopicsMore on this story

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Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said it is “impossible” to predict how many jobs the government’s new wage subsidy scheme will save. The scheme, set to replace furlough, will see the government top up the pay of people unable to work full time.It aims to stop mass job cuts after the government introduced new measures to tackle a rise in coronavirus cases.Mr Sunak said he hoped the plan would “benefit large numbers”, but he could not say what job is “viable or not”.Under the Job Support Scheme, if bosses bring back workers part time, the government will help top up their wages with employers to at least three quarters of their full time pay. It will begin on 1 November and last for six months. How will the Job Support Scheme work?Under the scheme, the government will subsidise the pay of employees who are working fewer than their normal hours due to lower demand.Employers will pay for the hours actually worked. And then the government and the employer will between them cover two thirds of the lost wages. But only staff who can work at least a third of their normal hours will be eligible for the scheme.The payment will be based on an employee’s normal salary, with the government contribution capped at £697.92 per month.Why is the government doing this?Mr Sunak described the scheme as a “radical new policy”, designed “to help protect as many jobs as possible [and] keep people in part-time work rather than laying them off”.However, he said it would only support “viable jobs” – as opposed to jobs that exist because the government is continuing to subsidise the wages.”It’s not for me to sit here and make pronouncements upon exactly what job is viable or not but what we do need to do is evolve our support now that we’re through the acute phase of the crisis,” Mr Sunak said at a press conference after the scheme was unveiled.”We obviously can’t sustain the same level of things that we were doing at the beginning of this crisis.”How many jobs will this save?The BBC understands that the Treasury is estimating that anywhere between two and five million people could be covered by the new Jobs Support Scheme.However, the chancellor told a press conference that he would be “lying” if he tried to give precise numbers but he said that some forecasts for unemployment “don’t make for good reading”.Nearly three million workers – or 12% of the UK’s workforce – are currently on partial or full furlough leave, according to official figures. The current furlough scheme ends on 31 October.The government’s contribution to workers’ pay will fall sharply compared with the furlough scheme. Under furlough, it initially paid 80% of a monthly wage up to £2,500 – under the new scheme this will drop to 22%.”The primary goal of our economic policy remains unchanged – to support people’s jobs – but the way we achieve that must evolve,” Mr Sunak said.”I cannot save every business, I cannot save every job.”How much will it cost?The scheme will cost the government an estimated £300m a month. Companies who use it can also still claim the Job Retention Bonus, where the government pays £1,000 for every furloughed employee who comes back to work until at least the end of January.Mr Sunak said a similar scheme for the self-employed would be available.Who does it help?All small and medium sized businesses will be eligible for the scheme but larger business will only qualify if their turnover has fallen during the crisisIt will run for six months starting in November and be open to employers across the UK even if they have not previously used the furlough scheme.Employees must be in ”viable jobs” to benefit from the scheme. Those in industries currently closed – such as nightclubs – may lose out as there isn’t any work.What do businesses think?Business lobby group the CBI welcomed the government’s plan.”It is right to target help on jobs with a future, but can only be part-time while demand remains flat. This is how skills and jobs can be preserved to enable a fast recovery, “said CBI director-general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn.However, Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank said that the new jobs scheme on its own “will not encourage firms to cut hours rather than jobs because the one-third employer contribution means it is much cheaper for firms to employ one person full-time than two people part-time”.He warned that the £1,000 Job Retention Bonus firms would receive for retaining workers at the end of January, combined with the new scheme could create a new “cliff-edge” for job cuts.”We’ve now got a big incentive for firms to retain workers part-time until you qualify for the bonus.”Labour, meanwhile, said it would support any measures to safeguard jobs but accused the government of acting too late. What about workers?Tracey Sheppard is a cleaner at a leisure centre in Essex who’s been on furlough since the end of March. She said she hoped the new Jobs Support Scheme will help her, but there are no guarantees. “They’re a very big company that I work for … but I don’t’ know whether they’d be able to afford to keep me on… I just don’t know,” she told the BBC’s World At One.She said she feels “frightened” because her family only recently moved to the area and this is the only job she can fit in around childcare. “I’ve just heard nothing [from my employer]. The last time I heard from them was the beginning of lockdown.”What else did the chancellor announce?A cut in VAT for hospitality and tourism companies will also be extended until March. The cut from 20% to 5% VAT – which came into force on 15 July – had been due to expire on 12 January next year.However, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) said this and the new jobs plan did “not go far enough” in helping the industry which has been hit by the government’s new restrictions to stop coronavirus cases from rising.What about loan repayments?Mr Sunak also announced that businesses that have borrowed money through the government’s loan scheme would be given more time to repay the money.The chancellor said that small businesses who took out “Bounce Back” loans can use a new “Pay as You Grow” flexible repayment system. It means borrowings can be repaid over 10 years instead of the original six year term.The longer repayment time also applied to small and medium-sized firms who borrowed under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.Businesses will also have more time to apply for these loans, as well as the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Future Fund. Application dates for the various schemes had been due to end in October and November.Will the scheme work?The new jobs support scheme is a fraction of what we have seen over the past few months, and is concentrated on those deemed to be in “viable” jobs. It cannot prevent a sharp rise in unemployment in the coming months in “non-viable” jobs. Indeed, the economic impact of this package of several billion pounds is likely to be far outweighed, even by this week’s announcement that the UK faces a six-month “new normal” of social restrictions.The Treasury has extended the bridge of support it put in place in March to cover the next six months. But the new scheme requires everybody to chip in. That will be too much for many employers. We are about to find out just how many.Read more hereWill this scheme benefit you? Do you have any questions about the scheme? Email [email protected] include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803

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By Eleanor LawrieBBC NewsRelated TopicsCoronavirus pandemicimage copyrightGetty ImagesChancellor Rishi Sunak has revealed details of his Job Support Scheme that will replace furlough when it closes on 31 October.What is the Job Support Scheme? The Job Support Scheme will run for six months from 1 November.It will top up salaries in firms which can’t take employees back full-time.To be eligible, employees must work for at least one-third of their normal hours.For the hours not worked, the government and employer will each pay one-third of the remaining wages. This means the employee would get at least 77% of their pay. The payment will be based on an employee’s normal salary, with the government contribution capped at £697.92 per month.So, for example, if someone earning £2,000 a month was working half their hours, they’d get £1,000 normal pay. They would then get £333 extra from their employer and £333 from the government.This is almost the same as the 80% offered under furlough scheme – but employees have to work at least a third of their hours, instead of none. After three months, the government may increase the minimum number of hours worked.Employees must be in ”viable jobs” to benefit from the scheme. Those in industries currently closed – such as nightclubs – may lose out as there isn’t any work.What does the scheme mean for firms?At the height of the furlough scheme, the government paid 80% of workers’ wages. But under the new scheme it will pay a maximum of 22%.The Job Support Scheme is open to small and medium-sized businesses (usually defined as firms with 250 employees or less).image copyrightGetty ImagesLarge businesses are also eligible, if they can prove their revenue has fallen because of coronavirus.Employees must have been on the firm’s payroll since at least 23 September. They can be moved on and off the scheme, or work different hours. Each working arrangement must cover at least seven days. Workers cannot be made redundant or put on notice while a Jobs Support Scheme grant is being claimed on their behalf.As with the furlough scheme, employers will be reimbursed by the government after the work has been done. What other jobs help is on offer?To minimise unemployment, the UK government will also give firms:£1,000 for every furloughed employee kept on until at least the end of January£1,500 for every out-of-work 16-24 year-old given a ”high quality” six-month work placement£2,000 for every under-25 apprentice taken on until the end of January, or £1,500 for over-25sCan I be made redundant while on furlough?Yes. Employees can be made redundant at any point during the scheme, which continues until 31 October.If a worker loses their job and is entitled to redundancy pay, this should be calculated based on their pre-furlough wages, and firms can’t use the money from furlough to subsidise redundancy packages. image copyrightGetty ImagesWhat is furlough and why was it introduced?The furlough scheme was designed to help people who couldn’t do their jobs and prevent mass redundancies.Under the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, to give furlough its official title, workers placed on leave have been able to receive 80% of their pay, up to a maximum of £2,500 a month. Since July, furloughed employees have been able to go back to work part-time. with the furlough scheme covering the other days not worked.Employers now have to pay 10% of the wages of furloughed workers, plus their National Insurance and pension contributions, rising to 20% in October.Can I work if I’ve been furloughed?When the scheme began, furloughed staff weren’t able to do any work for their employer. However, they can now be brought back to work on a part-time basis. Those still on furlough can volunteer in the community, or even for their company, as long as they aren’t making them money or providing a service. image copyrightGetty ImagesIf you work for more than one firm, you can receive furlough from any of them, up to £2,500 a month per employer. You can continue working for any that still need you or start working for a new employer, provided you are not breaching any existing contracts.How popular has the scheme been? The take-up has been significant, with 9.6 million workers furloughed by 1.2 million employers since March.These employers had made £39.3bn of furlough claims by 20 September and the scheme will cost the government an estimated £60bn in total, less than the £80bn initially forecast.The scheme covers full-time, part-time, flexible, zero-hour and agency workers if they were on their employer’s PAYE payroll on 19 March 2020.Workers must be furloughed for at least three weeks, and can be furloughed more than once.Companies can no longer make new furlough claims, except for people coming back from statutory parental leave, or returning military reservists.image copyrightGetty ImagesWill I still get sick pay and a bonus?Anyone on furlough retains the same employment rights. If you are ill you are eligible for statutory sick pay or can be placed on furlough.If you are on unpaid leave, shielding or have caring responsibilities, you are also eligible. Staff on parental leave will still receive statutory pay from the government. Although employers now have to pay towards the scheme, they do not also have to top up salaries that no longer reach the minimum wage.Related TopicsMore on this story

image copyrightCharles Heslett/BBCShoppers at Morrisons face restrictions on the number of items they can purchase to prevent panic buying.The supermarket chain has put a limit of three items per customer on some ranges, including toilet rolls and disinfectant products.It said stock levels “were good”, but the firm wanted to “make sure they were available for everyone”.The British Retail Consortium said supply chains were “stronger than ever”.Bradford-based Morrisons said restrictions would be sign-posted on shelf edges at tills. A spokeswoman said: “We have some products with limits on all year round such as paracetamol and so it works in just the same way.”Shelves at some stores were left depleted recently after the Government warned of rising coronavirus cases across the UK and the possibility of stricter lockdown measures.More stories across YorkshireThe British Retail Consortium (BRC) has urged consumers to be considerate of others and “shop as you normally would”.Despite scenes at some stores, supermarket giants Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Aldi said they had “good availability” earlier in the week and had not experienced any shortages yet.Tesco added its online capacity had almost doubled from 600,000 weekly delivery slots in March to 1.5 million in September.Director of food and sustainability at the BRC, Andrew Opie, said: “Supply chains are stronger than ever before and we do not anticipate any issues in the availability of food or other goods under a future lockdown.”Nonetheless, we urge consumers to be considerate of others and shop as they normally would.”image copyrightGetty ImagesMeanwhile, Asda is set to enforce rules on face coverings more strictly across its shops amid the pandemic.Customers who do not have a covering when they enter a store will be offered a pack of disposable masks that they can pay for at the end of their trip.The firm announced on Wednesday that it will create 1,000 new “safety marshal” roles across its 639 UK stores.Dedicated staff will remind shoppers to wear face coverings in-store and provide customers with sanitised shopping baskets on arrival.Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or send video here.More on this story

The self-employed will continue to receive government support under new measures announced by the chancellor.The extension to the Coronavirus Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is designed to protect people in a similar way to employed workers, although some groups will miss out.What help has been provided?Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his original package of measures in the spring.If they suffered a loss in income, a taxable grant was paid to the self-employed or partnerships, worth 80% of their profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month. SEISS was open to those who were trading in the financial year 2018-2019 and who planned to continue doing so, but whose business has been hit by coronavirus.Help was initially given as one lump-sum payment which was supposed to cover three months. Over the summer a “second and final” payment was announced covering 70% of profits, up to a cap of £2,190 per month for another three months – £6,570 in total.Some 2.6 million people were given at least one of these payments.What new measures are in place for the winter?The chancellor’s winter economy plan has included fresh support grants for the self-employed, although these are less generous than the previous payments.A first, taxable, grant at the start of November will cover 20% of average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering three months’ worth of profits, with a limit of £1,875 in total.The second grant will cover a three-month period from the start of February 2021 until the end of April, but the amount has yet to be set.Who is eligible?More than half of a claimant’s income needs to come from self-employment.The schemes have been open to those with a trading profit of less than £50,000 in 2018-19, or an average trading profit of less than £50,000 from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.The newly self-employed will not receive any help under this scheme. This is because they will not have filed a tax return and therefore HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will not know of their self-employed status.The government’s help comes on top of extended delays for tax payments through the self-assessment system. Payment plans can be set up giving people more time to pay their full tax bill up to January 2022.Those with the lowest incomes are in line to receive more generous benefits payments compared with before the crisis.How do I claim the help?The chancellor said the scheme will cover 95% of those who make most of their money from self-employment. This is how it has worked: HMRC will use existing information to identify those eligible and invited applications
The application requires them to confirm that they meet the eligibility requirements
It will be paid straight into a bank account, which eligible taxpayers will need to confirm on their application form
HMRC should have directly contacted those eligible
Self-employed people who pay themselves a salary and dividends through their own company are not covered by the scheme. However, they will have some of their salary covered by job retention schemes if they operate through PAYE.How many people are affected?There are more than five million self-employed people in the UK, earning an average of £781 a month. The number has risen fast since the financial crash of a decade ago. About 3.8 million of them may be covered by this scheme.So far, 2.6 million self-employed have signed up.Roughly a fifth of the self-employed are in the construction sector, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with hundreds of thousands of others working in the motor trade, professional services, and education.The chancellor also suggested tax breaks for the self-employed – such as lower national insurance – may end in the future. These were in place because the self-employed do not get sick pay or holiday pay, and to encourage entrepreneurship.This signals a massive change in UK tax policy, potentially equalising the tax treatment of the self-employed with employees.

The UK chancellor has announced a new scheme which will see some workers get three quarters of their normal salaries for six months.Rishi Sunak said it was “impossible” for him to predict the labour market, but added that the government needed “evolve our support” for jobs.Responding to a question from BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg he said that he could not say which jobs would remain viable because of the coronavirus pandemic. Chancellor unveils Job Support Scheme

The chancellor has announced the extension of a VAT cut for the hospitality and tourism sectors – some of the worst-hit by the pandemic.Rishi Sunak said that the temporary reduction of VAT rates from 20% to 5% would remain in place until 31 March 2021, rather than 13 January.The measure would “help protect 2.4 million jobs through the winter”, he said.But industry figures said that they were “still not out of the woods”.Restaurants and pubs in particular were affected by lockdown measures, and thousands of jobs in the sector have already been lost.The temporary VAT cut first came into force in July and was designed to help hotels, restaurants, cafes and pubs to shore up their finances.Some firms, however, such as KFC, Nando’s and Pret, decided to pass on the savings directly to customers by cutting prices in their outlets.The chancellor said on Thursday that the extension to the VAT cut would help “support more than 150,000 businesses” through the winter period.The cut applies to food and non-alcoholic drinks, accommodation and admission to tourist attractions across the UK, according to the Treasury’s Winter Economy Plan.In a press conference on Thursday, the chancellor said that the extension would cost the Treasury £800m – on top of the previous estimate of £2.5bn.What is VAT?Value Added Tax, or VAT, is the tax you have to pay when you buy goods or services.The standard rate of VAT in the UK is 20%, with about half the items households spend money on subject to this rate.There is a reduced rate of 5% which applies to some things such as children’s car seats and home energy.When you see a price for something in a shop, any VAT will already have been added.There are also various items for which you do not have to pay any VAT, such as most supermarket food, children’s clothing, newspapers and magazines.Read more about VAT.’Some reason to be positive’The chief executive of trade association UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, said that the cut provided some good news for the sector after it was announced that pubs and restaurants in England must now close at 22:00 BST.”The announcement of further restrictions was a significant hammer blow that will inevitably depress trading,” she said.”It was crucial that the chancellor delivered support today that specifically targeted the hospitality sector which has been hit harder than any.”The chancellor has given us some reason to be positive again but we urge him to engage with the trade on specific measures to keep people in work.”While some of these measures announced today will give businesses a future to shoot for and hope that they can begin to rebuild, we are still not out of the woods.”In an attempt to boost consumer demand, Mr Sunak introduced the “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme in August as restaurants and cafes gradually reopened over the summer.Under the scheme, diners got a state-backed 50% discount on meals and soft drinks up to £10 each on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.Earlier in September, the Treasury said that more than 100 million meals had been claimed under the scheme, which saw restaurant bookings surge.But Will Hawkley, UK head of leisure at KPMG, labelled the scheme “a distant memory”, with the government’s job retention scheme winding down and the number of coronavirus cases rising in the UK.”The leisure and tourism industry has understandably been feeling uneasy, if not left questioning its survival prospects,” he said.”While the chancellor may have demonstrated that the sector’s woes haven’t been overlooked, most businesses are likely to conclude that the extension of the VAT cut and the latest job support measures don’t go far enough.”Sadly not all operators will be able to survive and further job losses will be inevitable without further government support.” Many firms have been forced to make job cuts due to the impact the pandemic has had on trade overall.On Tuesday, Whitbread, which owns Premier Inn and Beefeater, warned that 6,000 staff could lose their jobs after guest numbers had slumped.Last month, Pizza Express warned 1,100 people could lose their jobs under its planned restructuring which will see the closure of 73 outlets..In June, The Restaurant Group – which owns Frankie and Benny’s – said it was cutting up to 3,000 jobs.