EIC0426
Written evidence submitted by Sarah Canavan
I am a self employed dental practitioner working in general practice in the East Midlands.
My working life is a mix of seeing treating both NHS and private patients approximately a 50/50 split in terms of numbers not earnings. If it were viable I would prefer to work seeing a 100% NHS patients but it is not possible to earn enough doing this just to cover my day to day “normal” and dental specific expenses hence why private patients also need to be seen. They basically pay my bills. I am not “mega rich” but comfortable when I am able to earn a living.
Therein lies the issue. Dental practices are closed because of Covid-19 because we are at one of the highest risks of contracting the virus and more importantly spreading it our staff, family and our patients. We are fighting hard to reopen but life as a dentist, particularly a NHS dentist, will never be the same again. Dentists have always been the “poor relative” of the medical world particularly regarding funding and this new world in which we life will make NHS dentistry unviable.
I am not a practice owner so don’t have a lot of the hardships that they do e.g. no reduction in business rates etc. Many dental practices will not survive this closure as they have completely lost all private income. I may not even have a job to go back to when we reopen.
However where I have been hit hardest is that because I am self employed and earned over £50,000 last year, for which I worked very hard, I am unable to claim the self employed persons grant of up to £7500. Even worse than that is my partner, if he were unable to work, would be unable to claim either because he earned £51000 last year, only by working 7 days a week I hasten to add. He shouldn’t have worked because he is asthmatic but, working for the construction industry, was told by the company they were contracted to carry out work for that if he didn’t he would lose his job. 160 people sharing one small canteen and physically unable to self distance. I’m amazed he’s not dead.
I don’t earn close to the £200000 “average” self employed income that the chancellor mentioned in his speech and am being bundled into a group of huge earners and again “averaged out”. Ironically a member of my family who works for the legal profession PAYE and earns £130000 per annum would automatically qualify for help as she is employed. How is that fair?
Even worse is that those self employed who are still working and earning the same as prior to the lockdown are actually able to claim the 3 month grant. My partner works with some of them and even though the majority have worked as normal and earned exactly the same they automatically qualified for the grant. There is no financial hardship there. Absolutely if they weren’t working they should get the help but not when they are still earning surely?
The icing on the cake is that when this is all done and dusted my partner and I will be penalised yet again when the tax laws change. Our taxes will go up even though neither of us received any help. We will be paying for all the PAYE people who automatically got helped plus those self employed still working and claiming. It is absolutely unfair.
If I still have a practice to go back to, my earning capacity will be hugely reduced because of changes we will have to make to our operating procedures. I’m just about hanging on now. I get a little help from my NHS earnings but it doesn’t really touch the sides. I dread to think what I will do when the mortgage holiday ends. Out of work, bankrupt and homeless possibly? Yes I don’t have to pay my taxes on account in July, which nearly cripples me every 6 months in a normal working year anyway, but I still have to find double the money in January.
In summary:
I am physically unable to work as the premises are closed.
I have no idea how I will be earning money in the future. I may not have a job.
My partner has been forced to work in “dangerous” jobs because neither he or I can claim help as self employed.
We are not rich but are being penalised for those others in the self employed group who are.
Some self employed people who have been working throughout the lockdown and have earned as before are claiming for the grant and getting it, no questions asked. HMRC may think that people are being honest and claiming only when required but I know for a fact that is untrue.
My partner and I will have to pay in the future, via taxes, for help we did not receive.
At the risk of sounding like a petulant child it’s just not fair.