Women less likely to be reaping benefits of financial support ‘for self-employed workers’

omen are less likely than men to be getting the benefits of the government’s financial support for self-employed workers, according to a new study.

Research, carried out by Women’s Budget Group, found by the end of January 2021 only 29 per cent of all claims for the government’s self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) were made by women, despite them constituting 35 per cent of self-employed workers.

The report found some 632,000 self-employed women made claims for the payments totalling just over £1.4bn by January 2021 – substantially less than the 1,557,000 claims made by men which amounted to almost £4.8bn.