Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 11:47 am on 15 July 2020.
Can I thank Helen Mary Jones and say that we are certainly open to considering a hardship fund? It will be dependent on our assessment of the economic resilience fund, the latest phase of that particular intervention, but also it will be dependent on the UK Government's response to the UK Treasury select committee's recommendations, which concern the gaps that have been exposed through UK Government support. And we'll also be assessing the self-employment support scheme, because it does appear that many of those individuals that are being pointed to Welsh Government for advice are actually eligible for the self-employment support scheme.
Data just published today at 9.30 a.m. shows that 16 per cent of people who are eligible for the self-employment support scheme in Wales have not yet made an application. That amounts to tens of thousands of self-employed people who, I fear, perhaps are not aware that they are eligible for that important support scheme and instead are looking, first and foremost, to Welsh Government. But we have always been clear that the economic resilience fund is designed to complement, not duplicate, UK Government interventions. So, I would urge anybody who is self-employed to look first and foremost at the self-employment support scheme, and to apply as soon as possible, because we estimate that there could be around 30,000 people who are yet to benefit from that scheme.