COVID-19 AND FINANCIAL HARDSHIP
KRW LAW LLP (KRW) act on behalf of Brian Donaldson, the former chef to the Northern Ireland football squad at the Euros in 2016.
Last year he switched from employee status to become self-employed in order to fully support his family.
When lockdown happened in March this year Brian Donaldson was left with no income because as a self–employed person he was not eligible for the government job retention scheme.
Like thousands of small businesses and the self-employed throughout the country, Brian Donaldson has been excluded from the government Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) simply because he had not yet filed a self–assessment tax return for 2018-2019.
He fits the criteria under section 76 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 for the job retention scheme save for this specific requirement.
Speaking on the launch of a legal action against the government, Christopher Doran of KRW said:
“The operation of the SEISS has served to destroy the livelihoods of many people. It is unlawful and discriminates against small businesses and the self-employed. All efforts to resolve this politically have failed. Against this background and with further difficult trading conditions looming KRW LAW LLP issued pre-action correspondence last week against the HM Treasury. The case is being taken to force a U-turn on the abandonment of small businesses and many self-employed people. Instead of operating a punitive fiscal policy we need to see this government doing everything within their power to support them during this unprecedented period.”