Support for self-employed receives guarded welcomed in Tyrone

NEW measures aimed at providing financial assistance during the current coronavirus crisis to those who are self-employed have been given a guarded welcome in Tyrone.

The arrangements which were announced on Thursday, mean that self-employed workers can receive 80 per-cent of their taxable profit over the past three years, capped at £2,500 per month.

It will apply to those with trading profits below £50,000 a year and has been welcomed by the Stormont Economy Minister, Diane Dodds, and the Finance Minister, Conor Murphy.

Aine McClean, who runs Omagh Foot Clinic, has been studying the new measures and says they will go some way towards addressing the problems, even though it is likely to be a number of months before the money finally becomes available.

“My hope is that the new scheme for the self-employed will enable me to receive 80 per-cent of my average monthly profit,” said Aine.

“But it won’t be paid until June which means that in the meantime the self-employed will have to dip into their savings or get overdraft facilities,” she added.

“That will be needed by so many in order to keep their businesses afloat until we are all back at work and hopefully that will be before June.”

However, for Aine’s husband, Ronan, the provisions of the scheme mean that he will not be eligible as his business hasn’t been operational for long enough.

Stormont Finance Minister, Conor Murphy, said that both he and the other members of the Executive had been pressing the Treasury in relation to the support.

“While this announcement is welcome, it is concerning that these workers won’t receive this until June,” he said.

“I intend to raise this with the chief secretary to the treasury while also seeking clarity on the eligibility for the Job Retention Scheme and hope that he moves urgently to provide this.”