Jason Thornton, 55, a self-employed driving instructor from South Ham claims he is in the forgotten five per cent of businesses who are not receiving support.

Based on HMRC tax returns from 2018-2019, Mr Thornton has outlined the “holes” in the 80 per cent Covid-19 grant to be paid to self-employed workers in June 2020.

After a year’s self-funded ADI training that cost £3000, the driving instructor passed all qualification and started his Driver Training business “JaseDrive” in June 2018.

He successfully grew his business and helped many drivers successfully pass their driving tests.

Mr Thornton said: “On the 23rd March 2020, I took what turned out to be my last lesson with a great young man with great potential and his brother had just had his test cancelled with me further to coronavirus. It was quite traumatic having seen someone grow so much in their ability and then everything being put aside all within days.

“I saw almost everyone temporarily closing their hard-earned businesses, some who had been teaching for over 45 years. It was heartbreaking. We were taking every precaution, wiping all controls and using anti-bacterial gels before and after each lesson for us and clients, but we could not keep a two-metre distance.

“After that day, along with millions, I waited and waited as it seemed every one that was employed as PAYE, were going to be offered 80 per cent “furloughs” from the government via their employers, to stay at home during the partial lockdown of the UK.”

The Chancellor announced on March 26 that he was going to offer support for the self-employed.

HMRC confirmed that Mr Thornton was not eligible for the grant.

“I was left feeling very frustrated, angry, upset and with nowhere to go. How can this be fair or just?

“As the government quite happily announced that it is designed to help the 95 per cent. There are 5 per cent of the self-employed, either that started up their businesses during 2019 and start-up companies like mine that paid salaries to themselves but made a loss due to first time set up costs and “capex”.

“Surely there is a way to work out what salaries were paid and give 80 per cent support based on that?

“My income from June 2018 – March 30th, 2019 was only £12600, literally just enough to survive. 80 per cent support on even that very small amount could make all the difference!," Mr Thornton added.

MP Maria Miller wrote in a letter to Mr Thornton: “I am of course concerned that you feel your business is not covered by any of the government's measures announced so far as part of the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme.

“I am writing to the Secretary of State for Business on behalf of all constituents similarly affected in order to express concern that there are still such gaps in the support package.  

“In the meantime, I understand that Federation for Small Business (FSB) is collating all concerns from self-employed people regarding this matter.  These will then be raised with the Government. Therefore, I would urge you to contact the FSB directly in order to highlight your situation.”

Chair of Driving Instructors Council writes letter to Chancellor

Dear Chancellor

ADINJC RESPONSE TO COVID-19 SUPPORT MEASURES FOR THE SELF EMPLOYED

I am writing to you as Chair of the ADINJC (Approved Driving Instructors National Joint Council) which is one of the leading national driving instructor associations in the UK with a membership of 8,000 driving instructors and rider trainers, the profession as a whole having 40,000 government licensed individuals.

As you are well aware from the introduction to your recent statement, where you specifically referred to driving instructors, the vast majority of driving instructors are self-employed individuals.

We see your announcement as very welcome for most driving instructors, it’s a safety net for our profession and we welcome the much-awaited news. It continues to be a most worrying time for driving instructors, along with the majority of the self-employed, and this will help to support many through this unprecedented crisis. However, it will be a challenge for many of them to survive until June when the money comes through and new instructors will not be able to claim.

I think it would be true to say that the measures are a pass, but only just.

The measures announced are very welcome for instructors who've been in business for several years. However, a number of instructors, many of whom were encouraged into the profession by the Government via the DVSA changing the qualification procedure in December 2017 with the objective of (to quote the then Under Secretary of State for Transport, Jesse Norman MP) "improving completion rates", became self-employed from 2018 and will not be able to claim.

Taking into account costs associated with training, up to £2,500, overheads, the vast majority starting as a franchisee with a national driving school who charge around £200 per week including car, and the time taken to build a business, the first year or so net income is likely to be low. For example, one instructor reported a £4,500 net loss in their FY2018/19 return and another, with a 14 year old child, used most of their redundancy money to train, set up in business and to live on resulting in no net income from their business until late 2019. Another who taught in a primary school for 20 years, ending up as deputy headmaster, having paid into the system for all that time. Started his new career as a driving instructor in September 2019 so is not eligible for the grant.

Whilst we acknowledge it's challenging to design measures which encompass 100% of people, it's regrettable there isn't a procedure, maybe verification of evidence from government agencies such as DVSA, specialist vehicle or franchise receipts, for

such self-employed individuals to receive a grant based on HMRC's knowledge of net income within individual industries, such as currently used for tax inspection purposes.

We would, respectfully, in the interests of ensuring that such self-employed individuals are not inadvertently "forgotten" and "left...behind", implore you to investigate any options which would meet their, often desperate, need to pay bills and put food on their family's table whilst maintaining the integrity of the public purse?

We are happy to liaise with you or your team to discuss what measures could help in this respect and we are, as a member of NASP, a trusted advisor and Tier One consultative stakeholder of DVSA and DfT and have been working closely with them to offer guidance and manage any communication with the profession.

Yours faithfully

Lynne Barrie MA, DVSA ADI (Car) Chair ADINJC