Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what further plans he has to make financial support available to (a) people and (b) businesses that have been excluded from Government financial support during the covid-19 outbreak.

In response to the unparalleled economic shock created by COVID-19, the government quickly provided one of the most comprehensive and generous packages of economic support globally, adapting the help offered as the situation evolved. This has provided timely and targeted temporary support to individuals, families and businesses up and down the UK. At the Budget, the Chancellor announced an additional £65 billion of further measures to support the economy this year and next year, taking the total cumulative cost of the COVID-19 rescue package since the start of the pandemic to £352 billion.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has now supported 11.2 million jobs across the UK, worth £53.8 billion, and has been extended until the end of September. At the Budget, the Chancellor also announced two further grants of the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme. Self-employed people who filed their 2019/20 tax returns by 2 March will be eligible for both grants, meaning that over 600,000 self-employed individuals may be newly eligible for the SEISS, including many new to self-employment.

The government has also extended support for the lowest paid and most vulnerable. The temporary £20 uplift to Universal Credit will continue for a further six months. Working Tax Credit claimants will receive an equivalent of six months of support through a one-off £500 payment.

To support businesses through the next stage of the pandemic, the government is providing a Restart Grant of up to £18,000 to over 680,000 business premises, giving them the cash certainty they need to plan ahead and safely relaunch trading over the coming months. To replace the Bounce Back Loans and Business Interruption Loans, the government is introducing a new Recovery Loan Scheme. The government is also providing English local authorities with an additional £425 million of discretionary business grant funding on top of the £1.6 billion already allocated. In addition, the government is extending previous VAT reductions and business rates reliefs for sectors heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Finally, we must recognise that it will not be possible to preserve every job or business indefinitely, nor stand in the way of the economy adapting and people finding new jobs or starting new businesses.