Budget 2021 news – We’ll be paying off coronavirus debts for DECADES as cost soars to £407 billion, Rishi Sunak warns
RISHI Sunak has warned that Britain will be paying off its £407 billion coronavirus debts for decades.
Declaring yesterday’s Budget as the first step to economic recovery, the Chancellor told BBC Breakfast: “The shock coronavirus has done to our economy has been significant and as I said yesterday, this won’t be fixed overnight.
“It will be the work of many years, decades and governments to fully pay all that money back, but it is important that we get our borrowing and debt under control so it stops going up even after we’ve recovered,” he said.
Yesterday he revealed that 600,000 self-employed Brits, many of whom became self-employed in 2019-20, can now claim direct cash grants of up to £7,500 under the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Previously they could only claim if they had filled in a recent tax return, which meant millions were shut out.
Rishi said the Government will give a fourth grant of up to £7,500 to the self-employed and a fifth one will come over the summer – in line with a furlough extension until September.
The Chancellor also extended the stamp duty holiday until June 30 as house prices rocketed 6.9 per cent year-on-year last month to a record high of £231,061 last month, new data shows.
A £20 a week Universal Credit uplift in payments has also been extended for another six months for low income households.
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