TENS of thousands of self-employed people are not eligible for the government’s coronavirus support scheme, official figures showed today.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that around 150,000 self-employed people in the country have only worked for themselves since the end of the 2018/19 tax year.

This means they may not be eligible for the government’s self-employment income support scheme because they would miss the threshold to prove their past income to receive wage subsidies.

Only those who have submitted a tax return for the tax year ending 2019 are eligible for government assistance.

The ONS said by the end of last year there were more than five million self-employed people in Britain, up from 3.2m in 2000.

Self-employment has contributed strongly to employment growth in the labour market, with self-employed people representing 15.3 per cent of employment, up from 12 per cent in 2000, said the report.

Of all self-employed people, 87 per cent (4.3m) said that they have been self-employed since before April 2018.

A further 9 per cent reported starting self-employment between April 2018 and March 2019.

Provided they have submitted a tax return for the tax year ending 2019 and other criteria are met, these people will be eligible for the scheme, although their profits may not be representative of a full year of trading, said ONS.

The estimates will not include people who have become self-employed since the start of 2020 and might under-report the extent of newly self-employed people, the report added.

Research by the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) has highlighted that almost half of self-employed workers fear they will not have enough money to cover basic living costs during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Head of the Bectu union, Philippa Childs, said: “These numbers show that over a quarter of the self-employed population identify themselves as sole directors or freelancers and will not be covered by the government scheme designed to support self-employed workers during the pandemic.

“Bectu has identified a number of gaps in the income support schemes that are intended to cover people who have had their work disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, including thousands of workers in the creative industries, and these statistics demonstrate the urgent need for the Treasury to act to fill these gaps.

“We have written to the Treasury offering solutions that could work for people working in the creative industries.

“However, these figures show that if these solutions were adopted they would benefit many more in the wider economy.”