The fact that so many people had an untypical virus infection at the end of December through January needs to be taken more seriously by the medical fraternity instead of being dismissed out of hand. I had it. Loads of anecdotes the same on here. Go on other social media the same. I mentioned it at the time (remember this is pre-coronavirus in the media) to friends and family and about one in three either had it or knew somebody. Now we all seem to agree that it was nothing like flu. We all had a very bad cough, dry and unproductive. I had a fever for a day and so did most others. In fact it was the worst cough I have ever had in relation to being completely uncontrollable. Somebody posted today that they were hospitalised and put on a ventilator. If I had breathing problems I would have struggled. People don't bother going to the doctors these days with a cough because they know they will be told "it's just a virus doing the rounds and there's nothing we can do, come back in three weeks if you've still got it." So it also went through largely unreported. These symptoms tie up quite well with Covid-19. I'm not saying it was, it could be a different Corona virus or this a second wave mutated. But from an epidemiological point of view it could be very important to find out what it was. If they asked each new case if they had a cough earlier in the year and they all said "no" it would be very interesting. Then people who had the cough in January could be tested for anti-bodies and if they proved positive it could mean thousands, maybe millions already have had it. 

I don't believe in conspiracy theories as a retired scientist but there seems to be enough evidence not to dismiss it out of hand.

The temptation for many if they are employing a trades person is to take the offer of paying in cash to avoid VAT. 

Tough luck now for such self-employed together with those who've never payed a penny in tax or NI in the first place !

exactly my thought too! -  I cant help but think of a particular person who my mother in law had asked  her to do some cleaning but she said she'd only do it for cash in hand... we were aware that was how she ran her "business" so we intervened and insisted that she should provide invoices for her work... and we'd set up a BACS  arrangement.(my mother in law is infirm these days).  Needless to say the person refused!  

And no doubt this person still expects to be treated for free by the nhs.

Nothing wrong with those doing it by the book, Justin, even if it is annoying that things like paying themselves dividends has personally cost me money. (I do a SA return each year and yes, I declare everything... even the piddling little Royal Mail dividends).

But those who won't do a job for anything other than cash in hand? Fair game, IMO, you reap what you sow. And I suspect it'll be a pretty patchy harvest when the Chancellor speaks lately.

Dividends are paid by those who have set up companies and that is irrelevant to this debate. These people will be covered by the first set of announcements. They are not self employed.

People like my dad - I know he set up a limited company with himself as sole employee, just to get 3 months of contract work at a pharma company in Brighton. A massive amount of overkill, but he regarded himself as self-employed in that instance. He had mountains of paperwork with that, which I then inherited once he died!

Although my dad didn't, I know a lot of these contractor types do indeed pay themselves a minimum wage, then supplement it with dividends (hence the allowance was cut from unlimited, to £5K, to £2K before tax is due).

I would expect they'd howl at only getting gov't pay based on minimum wage.

The builders, fencers, plumbers etc who do the cash in hand stuff, on the other hand... no easier way to wind a plumber up than by asking him for an invoice!

Most of my pupils still pay for Driver training by cash and it’s a pain... nearest branch of the NatWest is 18 miles away and they charge you for giving them cash!

I am guessing you still declare it though, and the cost of banking it can be claimed as an out of pocket expense.

There is a good argument for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to close borders with Great Britain. I wonder how that would go down in some quarters.

not sure who you had in mind with your post, Justyn, but let me be clear, I am not against anyone who is self employed, far from it... I am against people demanding to be paid in cash so they can defraud the Exchequer... Why else would this person decline to accept the position because we refused  to pay cash... all we wanted was a proper invoice and to pay by on line transfer... I might add we were going to pay her £15p/h.. above the living wage.

I applaud those who are self employed that have business acumen and ideas to run their own businesses: I did for many years.

It's incredibly rewarding if you're your own boss. You can make your own decisions and admire what you've created. You have successes  and failures and you have to accept those whichever way your business goes, and as long as you're honest with Revenue you're entitled to the same level of support as PAYE employees.

The problem is there are shed loads of self-employed who don't declare all of their income and are now expecting the govt to shore up their un-entitled life-styles.

I guess that's what the "anti-self employed mob" aren't happy about. 

I don't think it would make that much difference now Brain - the virus was being transported into NI and ROI for a number of weeks before dropping to a relative trickle in recent days as folk have stopped travelling. 

Interestingly today - here in NI the number of confirmed new cases has dropped from 37 to 32....though only hospitalised cases are being tested. The NI CMO reckons there could be tens of thousands infected who'll never be picked up - though I guess that's the same everywhere.

Medical folk naturally still planning for big uptick though....

Yes it goes to the bank... I just save it up for awhile before going!!

I certainly had something very unpleasant around November time.  Had been perfectly well and was sitting watching TV one night just after dinner and started the dry, hacking and uncontrollable cough. This was followed by general body soreness/aches and a nasty chest infection that went on for a number weeks - including chest tightness and a pain in the lung area. In addition to two doses of antibiotics I lived on paracetamol/ibuprofen for about 4 weeks. It took until about mid-February past (from last November) to start to feel normal again.

Was as poorly as I've ever felt over a protracted period of time.  No idea what it was but the symptoms sound suspiciously familiar.....strangely enough my wife did not get it despite as you would expect living in close quarters. This is the only thing that seems to differentiate it from COV-19.  The possibility of contracting anything like it again alarms me.....

well said, and far more eloquent than my post!

I haven’t seen a solitary post suggesting that everyone takes cash in hand to avoid tax but it’s clearly an issue amongst some trades people.

https://twitter.com/fawn_liberty/status/1242389149002477568?s=21

 
😄😄

Most plumbers, electricians I've used will ask for bank payment. It's the outside workers: builders, fencers, tree fellers I've used that want cash. And to be honest their solution will be to keep on working through this. If you're a one-man fencer, you're not going to be within 2m of anyone anyways.

Maunder and myself have posted on quite a number of occasions in previous threads questioning why steps such as resticting travel in and out of the UK were not taken by the government more than a month ago, by which time the virus had already reached England and was becoming more prevalent across Europe, especially Italy.

A friend of mine whom I orginally knew at high school in the 1990s and whom I keep in touch with these days on Facebook travelled to Tenefire only three weeks ago for his brother's stag do. By this time, it was pretty clear that there would be a widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in this country and yet people were, at that time, still allowed to travel between this country and others that were known to be affected by the virus.

I haven't heard from my friend since then; hope he's OK.

New York State timeline since March 1st.

• March 1: 1


• March 6: 44 


• March 11: 220 


• March 16: 950 


• March 21: 10,356


• March 26: 37,258

My wife is a gardener. She rarely gets any cash as all her customers are regulars and pay via bank transfer or cheque. The older ones use cheques which for younger viewers are now considered antiques

Just been watching Sky News. Comparing our situation with that of Italy, they think lockdown will last at least a month here. I think it will be longer than that though. The difference between us and Italy is the Italians have been much more obedient of the lockdown, whereas many of the British have treated it as a free holiday so far.