Forgotten Ltd seeking ‘devastated’ directors to set the press pack straight

Limited company directors in Liverpool and Manchester are being urged to come forward to tell the UK how distressing being excluded from the government’s coronavirus aid really is.

In an appeal, Forgotten Ltd said it needed five directors in each city “to tell their story” to reporters, who have agreed to cover the “real impact” of scant income help for PSCs.

The lobby group was speaking following what it described as an “exciting” meeting with Liverpool metro mayor Steve Rotherham and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

'Step up a gear'

“They have been supporting forgotten limited companies from the beginning of the [pandemic],” Forgotten Ltd said of the two mayors, in its online appeal last night.

“But now we’re going to step it up a gear…[by] planning a joint-event with massive press coverage.”

To be selected, directors should be willing to give a ‘warts and all’ account of the difficulties they have encountered from getting little or no income support during both lockdowns.

'Devastating'

“We need to show the real…impact of this devastating situation [and] make the average person…really care about us and the injustice created by the gaps in support,” the group said.

Offline, campaigners say that mainstream press coverage almost always fails to differentiate between the self-employed and the employed running their own one-person business.

Claims from ministers that the ‘government is helping the self-employed’ (given credence by the SEISS), have also convinced some MPs that all business-owners are covered in the government’s income support packages, deployed to help people through the pandemic.

'Media guility of lumping us into one self-employed bucket'

“Some MPs and media titles are guilty of lumping us all into one [self-employed] ‘bucket’ which camouflages our situation,” a PSC’s owner-manager says. “People think we are being helped when we are not.” 

Addressing its followers last night, and urging hard-up directors to get in touch if either Mr Rotheram or Mr Burnham is their mayor, Forgotten Ltd said: “Never has it been more important than it is now for us all to pull together. To stand up, step forward and be heard.”

The group also said: “We’ve all been here together for over seven months fighting for parity and we believe the campaign has now reached a critical point. The next few weeks could be the make or break”.