As things stand, the self-employed pay a higher band of Social Security Contributions (SSC) than employed individuals and realistically do not have the same benefits as employed individuals insofar as leave and sick leave are concerned. Perhaps a decrease in the SSC bands as well as a government incentive/tax credit insofar as the leave days are concerned can be implemented by a future Government.
As I see it, we pay more in SSC but have no state benefits - we are unpaid when we don't have work and still have to pay and when we can't work the sickness benefit is extremely limited and doesn't kick in immediately either. I support having lower rate of SSC for these reasons.
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