Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Ron Aldo]

Been on and off the phone for weeks to Business Gateway who have been saying that there's a 'mobile close contact services' relief fund coming for several months.
My partner has been a self-employed hairdresser since late August 2020 and due to having no-business premises, has not (until now) qualified for any sort of relief so been living off of the little money she's managed to stash in the couple of months before December to pay mortgage, bills, etc.
We were told though that newly self-employed hairdressers, nail workers etc working from home would be eligible for a 'forced to close relief fund' and was advised by Business Gateway to email a local MSP (In my case, Tom Arthur) to request an update on when this would be available.
I received a call about an hour ago from a case worker out of Tom Arthur's office who was letting me know that the relief was now about to go live and that for not being able to work, my partner would be eligible for up to £4000 as a one-time grant and she was sending me the details.
As soon as I clicked the link, eligibility criteria was below:

 
I explain that my partner is NEWLY self-employed (ie, 7 months - no set of accounts yet published) so is not eligible and get told 'oh, there's a newly self employed relief fund' so have a look at that.

 
Laughable stuff. Honestly.
So basically my partner is up shit creek without a paddle for having the gall to leave a failing business and go out on her own last year. I express this to the case worker who replies that 'Yes, it's disappointing'. Is it? Is it fucking disappointing?! I explain that it's not 'disappointing', it's completely infuriating and leaves my partner (who is already as fucking down as I've ever seen her) wondering when she'll ever catch any sort of a break here. It's massively frustrating that despite seemingly every other business in her sector having money thrown at them to keep themselves afloat, hers is disregarded as a fully registered and completely above board, but ultimately new business.
So it makes me question why my partner should be considered important enough and high risk enough to be forced into closure, but not important enough to be subsidised for her sacrifice? I'm quite sure if she started to trade on the downlow, she'd be as subject to the laws as any other business. 
I can't get my head around it. We've been told and assured for the last 3 months to hold off as this grant was coming. We were also told that they were aware newly self employed people were slipping the net and something would be set up to help them out, that help would definitely be coming her way. 
We're completely gutted at this. It's as close as I've come to being broken by the entire thing.
 

I know a guy who runs a business renting out camper vans. He closed his business given the restrictions on leisure meant camp sites had to close and a nationwide travel ban has been brought in. He'd applied for the Strategic Framework Business Fund but the application was rejected. He then appealed but that was also rejected and he was basically told that vehicle hire businesses were excluded from this grant.

One of my mates does car detailing and he's also been refused support. The reason he was given is that he doesn't have to invite customers into his business premises to be able to do his job. The slight issue with that is that he currently has no customers given that people are being told not to make non-essential journeys.

Small businesses are being made to jump through hoops and are getting little to no support. I'm not a business owner myself but I'm hearing more and more stories of people being refused support for one ridiculous reason or another and it just isn't on. Hopefully you can get something sorted!

[Todd_is_God]

5 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

Fly into an English airport. That's how pointless this sabre rattling PR exercise is.

He would still have to do 10 days house quarantine when he got here. That hasn't changed for English arrivals from non Red Zone countries.

He could, however, do so at home with his family, at no additional expense.

Unless, of course, compassionate reason such as funerals for close family members are still exemptions. They were previously - I've no idea if they are on the list or not.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Todd_is_God

[Binos]

1 minute ago, Billy Jean King said:

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

Fly into an English airport. That's how pointless this sabre rattling PR exercise is.

He would still have to do 10 days house quarantine when he got here. That hasn't changed for English arrivals from non Red Zone countries.

The red zone list is a nonsense

It will just be expanded to include many more countries as these things always are

[Billy Jean King]

He could, however, do so at home with his family, at no additional expense.
Unless, of course, compassionate reason such as funerals for close family members are exemptions. I've no idea if they are on the list or not.

See post above no idea how it ended up above this. Just been on the news.

[Billy Jean King]

Just been on the news. Any passenger arriving in England with a passenger locator form giving an address in Scotland will be taken to hotel quarantine at point if entry in England regardless of their departure airport. 10k fine and / or imprisonment for falsifying a PLF declaration.

[Granny Danger]

3 minutes ago, Binos said:

The red zone list is a nonsense

It will just be expanded to include many more countries as these things always are

Yeah, much happier with the Scottish approach.

I’ve been told that there are exceptions for business related trips, the definition of which is very wide.  Seems a strange exception.

[dirty dingus]

Surely there must be a special exemption to the covid quarantine hotels for deaths and end of life situations. I remember when NZ were in lockdown and a couple of women from Manchester were allowed in to attend a funeral(parent I think), they did bring in covid mind so that's why their story was highlighted.

Here's the link.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/two-women-travelling-uk-take-22201240

Edited February 9, 2021 by dirty dingus

[Todd_is_God]

What's that, the vaccine shown to work against the variants?

Almost immediately:

[Billy Jean King]

Apparently it's only planned for 3 Scottish airports. Are there no international arrivals outwith Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen any more ?

[Ron Aldo]

What's that, the vaccine shown to work against the variants?
Almost immediately:
[emoji849]

Where does it end [emoji23]?

I genuinely can't recall one news item mentioning variants prior to December. Since then, it's all we've heard about despite it being almost certain that the virus has been mutating since day 1.

These constant updates on "variants" are getting beyond a joke and do nothing but increase people's fear and anxiety levels.

[Burnieman]

Here's hoping the bonfire builders might show us the way, then!

Pallet probation?

[Distant Doonhamer]

What's that, the vaccine shown to work against the variants?
Almost immediately:
[emoji849]

Yep. It’s grim isn’t it.
I’m extremely fortunate that I’ve been able to keep pretty positive throughout this pandemic. I have to say the last few days have ground me down to such an extent that I’ve been actively seeking out some of the good news stuff that is out there. The unrelenting gloom of some is tough to take though.

[djchapsticks]

3 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

Where does it end ?

I genuinely can't recall one news item mentioning variants prior to December. Since then, it's all we've heard about despite it being almost certain that the virus has been mutating since day 1.

These constant updates on "variants" are getting beyond a joke and do nothing but increase people's fear and anxiety levels.

Think many of us have been saying it for months. It's a double edged sword to increase both adherence to restrictions and vaccine uptake.

Once they hit 70-80% of the population vaccinated, we'll see how often variants are rolled out. Van Tam said it yesterday, it's nothing they haven't seen before or planned for.

[Granny Danger]

10 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

What's that, the vaccine shown to work against the variants?

Almost immediately:

There is nothing in that report saying the vaccines work ‘almost immediately’.

Liars gotta lie.

 

[djchapsticks]

Just now, Granny Danger said:

There is nothing in that report saying the vaccines work ‘almost immediately’.

Liars gotta lie.

 

That's not at all what he said.

Not even remotely close.

[Left Back]

So £1,750 per stay, say £100 for the two tests and the transfer these quarantine hotels will be coining it in on a per diem rate.

[Granny Danger]

2 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

That's not at all what he said.

Not even remotely close.

What does the second line of the post say?
 

[Ron Aldo]

3 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

There is nothing in that report saying the vaccines work ‘almost immediately’.

Liars gotta lie.

 

 

[Billy Jean King]

He could, however, do so at home with his family, at no additional expense.
Unless, of course, compassionate reason such as funerals for close family members are still exemptions. They were previously - I've no idea if they are on the list or not.

And at a cost of £250-300 for 2 private pcr tests on days 2 and 8 which you seemingly have to arrange at your point of arrival into the UK. Going to take hours clearing the airport by the sounds of it. It all sounds totally unmanageable and unenforceable despite the draconian sounding penalties if caught

[Left Back]

29 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

 

Just been on the news. Any passenger arriving in England with a passenger locator form giving an address in Scotland will be taken to hotel quarantine at point if entry in England regardless of their departure airport. 10k fine and / or imprisonment for falsifying a PLF declaration.

 

This is an ask of the UK government.  Nothing agreed.