Coronavirus: Rishi Sunak to unveil financial aid for self-employed

Self-employed workers facing financial difficulties as a result of coronavirus are set to be offered a package of support from the government.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will unveil the measures later.

He set out plans for 80% wage subsidies for staff kept on by employers last week – and the PM has said he wants similar protection for freelancers.

However, Boris Johnson added he could not promise the UK would beat the virus “without any kind of hardship at all”.

The total number of people in the UK to die with Covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, has reached 465.

Mr Sunak said last week that the government would cover wages of up to £2,500 a month for staff being kept on by their employer, as part of “unprecedented” measures to prevent workers being laid off.

The chancellor later said drawing up plans to help self-employed people had proved “incredibly complicated”.

Dr Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “For many people that have seen their businesses disappear in the blink of an eye, things like statutory sick pay or universal credit just isn’t enough.

“It doesn’t need to be perfect – we just need a system in place,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.