How I watched my hopes of decent financial support evaporate

I started out as a child actor 56 years ago but became increasingly fascinated by lighting and decided I wanted to work behind the scenes.

Paul MIddleton, lighting director and chair of Bectu South Wales freelance branch

Over the years I have been a lighting designer, company stage manager, sound mixer, video tape editor, software developer, audio visual technician, PC repair engineer and TV lighting director, to name but a few – and always a member of my relevant union.

Fast forward to 2019 and I was a part-time PAYE employee looking after a TV studio and drama studio at a local FE college, alongside freelance lighting director work in TV, theatre, exhibitions, conferences and events.

I was happy with a turnover of £15,000 from around 70 days of freelancing a year alongside 18.5 hours a week PAYE. As I had invested in equipment when going freelance in 2010, I had accumulated losses which reduced my profit from self-employed work to below my PAYE income, but I was OK financially.

January and February are traditionally very quiet and after a cheap off-season holiday in Croatia I was ready for work to start with a vengeance in the second week of March this year.

At 2.30pm on Friday 13th (I should have checked my diary more closely!) I was booked to do conferences and to rig and light a stage production of Clue. By 3pm that work had all been cancelled.

It soon became clear this was not going to be over in a few weeks. It was obvious that conferences, exhibitions, stage and TV productions were all coming to a halt.

I immediately tried to apply for Universal Credit. Luckily after only two hours I got through and was told that I would get a call back within a week. When the call came I was offered the option of an immediate payment, to be repaid in a year’s time or by receiving reduced payments each month.

I chose the advance payment. I had concerns about being paid for work done before lockdown and needed cash in the bank.

SEISS hope disappears

When the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme was announced on 20 April it seemed great. Other countries such as Denmark had offered freelancer support schemes, but as I listened to the Chancellor’s speech I realised that he intended to treat UK freelancers very differently.

Despite manifesto promises, the thinly veiled threat was that he would probably have to look closer at the future tax position of freelance workers in return for offering them “the most generous support package of any government.”

He promised that 95% of the four million self-employed workers would be covered, receiving 80% of our average self-employed income. The presumption was only people earning more than £50,000 per annum would be left out.

However, HMRC considers your profit as your income, not your turnover.

Furthermore if you have been partially employed on PAYE then you will get no support from the SEISS, as your PAYE employer should be furloughing you, unless (as in many cases) that PAYE job no longer exists.

All these rules were also based on your Income in 2018-19, and not the most recent tax year, so I was only awarded £383 per month Universal Credit.

It became clearer week by week that a fast return to work in the entertainment sector was not going to happen. I had to cut everything but essential expenditure.

Out went charity donations, English Heritage, National Trust, Cineworld, central heating Insurance and Virgin TV. I changed to BT for cheaper internet, as even the government accepts that without an internet connection you are nobody.

I would have registered my car as off road, but my garage is full of equipment. Non-essential software licences were cancelled. Discounted holiday trips for next year are out of question.

Here in Wales my council tax has been reduced to almost zero while I receive Universal Credit. My finances are not quite so dire now, and working my way through 100 ways to cook potatoes is no longer my only source of sustenance.

Other concerns

My current concerns are that:

• Government is likely to renege on its manifesto promises not to increase the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT.
• Instead of furloughing, government will move everyone on to Universal Credit – even though these costs will soar as a result of massively increased redundancies .
• Government does not care about “small “job losses or closures, such as theatres and exhibition/conference centres.
• Many people will leave the industry but without the work skills needed and when many businesses will be reducing costs and seeking smaller crews and cheaper labour.
• Government is likely to try to change the current self-employed regime to taxing at source for people with multiple short engagements.

The fear factor

I don’t see any theatre or events venues being able to re-open until either a COVID-19 vaccine is available or on-the-spot testing  with instant results.

The fear factor has also become so ingrained into people that it will take much more than mandatory face masks to persuade them they are safe.

The science is being constantly being revised and lockdown is being eased to prevent total collapse of the economy, but without public confidence, things will take a long time to return to normal.

I also fear that people forced to continue working in jobs, because they don’t get sick pay, are likely to try to hide signs of infection. The government failure to implement serious track and trace has not helped.

I hope that advances in medicine will bring a fast return to normality but I fear for the numbers of people and businesses that will fail to meet mortgages or other liabilities and the potential domino effect.

• Paul Middleton is lighting director at Pimlights and the chair of Bectu South Wales freelance branch.