you're watching bbc news. there's been a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus deaths and cases in the united kingdom. a further 115 people have died in the uk after testing positive for coronavirus — that's the first time the death toll has surpassed 100 in a single day. that brings the total number of deaths in the to 578 and the total number of confirmed cases now stands at 11,658 — an increase of over 2,000 compared to yesterday. earlier this afternoon, the uk's the chancellor, rishi sunak announce his plans to help the self— employed — he's called it ‘fair and deliverable ‘and one of the most

generous policies in the world, aiming to cover 95% of people. the measures which come into effect from june — include a taxable grant which would cover 80% of average earnings over the past three up to a cap of £2,500 per month it earnings over the past three years up to a cap of £2,500 per month it will be open to those with trading profits of up to 50,000 pounds. more on that in a moment. but first — earlier this hour, people around the uk people went to their windows, front doors and balconies to applaud the country's nhs health workers who are working so hard in these unprecdented times. applause. this was the scene in finchley in north london this evening at eight o'clock where residents came out onto the street. and in nottingham where residents of a block of flat showed their support from the balconies.

meanwhile, a series of landmarks in london — including the london eye and big ben — lit up in blue during the salute. as well as other landmarks around the uk — such as belfast city hall, lincoln cathedral and principality stadium. annemarie plas is the woman behind the event, and earlier she told the bbc what had inspired her. well, i was inspired by what i saw happening in my home country. being dutch, i'm still in many dutch web chat groups so i saw first—hand it happening as well as the actual applause and then i was looking up and i saw what is happening in way more countries than just the netherlands and i thought why don't we just try to do this here as well. and rather spontaneously i posted on my social channels on whatsapp

and before we knew it, it got spread throughout the nation. you've been contacting us with your questions about the chancellor's speech and the support that could be given to the self—employed. we're going to do our best now to answer some of them now — on bbc your questions answered. with me to answer your questions is the presenter of bbc radio 4's money box, paul lewis. also i'm joined by claer barrett, who is the personal finance editor of the financial times. fantastic tojoin fantastic to join you both. first, before we get onto the money, did you hear clapping and join in, paul? idid you hear clapping and join in, paul? i did not. ijust realised the time pass. i am really sorry about that everyone. we were probably making

you set up. what about you, claire? it was really a danger... we can figure out the rest of your answer. we had a little bit of a problem with the airline. we will work on that throughout the next few minutes. i think possibly best we start with paul. i will read out the first question from rachel mason who e—mailed us. she said... "are newly self—employed people who do not have a tax return for 2019 going to be eligible for a grant?" the sad news is that no. the condition the chancellor has laid down is that you must have built in a tax return, a self assessment tax return and been self—employed in the 2018, 19 tax year, the one ending last. you will have fielding your tax return by eight the 31st of

january this year, and that will be the key tax return. if you have been self—employed for longer they will go back three years and average or pay—out. but if you started in the present tax year, 2019—20, you will not have fielding a tax return and ipad tweets from people who have graduated in new graduates, they started as self—employed and when i get any help from this at all. -- i had tweets. to follow up, what should rachel do? it is very difficult without known her personal circumstances but if she is in a self—employed business and it is really gone in a bad way because of coronavirus and the lack of business thatis coronavirus and the lack of business that is forthcoming, then if she can ican that is forthcoming, then if she can i can help from the government and that way all she can have recourse to is to try to claim benefits. that has his own problems. nearly half a million people there were trying to claim universal credit and nine

days, whether 100,000 claim universal credit and nine days, whether100,000 a day now. the system is creaking. and even if you successfully claim universal credit, it is the means test benefit independently of the income and it also depends on your savings. and your partner's savings if you have a partner. so you may not get it and it's not very much. one system creaking. while the tele— commission systems around the world, we are doing our best with ours. you're holding out fantastically and i would have go, claire and see if we can make contact with you. i would love to read you a question sent to us love to read you a question sent to us by susie. she asked "please can you tell me what help there is for zero hour contract people who live with a partner who is receiving a furloughed 80% wages pay?" hopefully you can hear me. hopefully you can hear melj hopefully you can hear me. i can. the problem with people a there our contract is that technically,...

employs you and uses the furlough scheme. and they would count... let me stop you for a second. i am sorry. we are getting one word and five. if we put those when words and fight together, it doesn't add up to quite what we need at the moment. 0urteam quite what we need at the moment. our team will have another chat to you to see if we can really crack that line. paul, quickly read to you susie's question. i will repeat it again. "please can you tell me what help there is for zero hour contract people who live with a partner who is receiving a furloughed 80% wages pay?" if you're on a zero—hour contract you are technically employed. if you are paid to p a y e. whoever it is they give you those, that work, that can apply for it not for this game today but the one that was announced a few days ago. so that you can go on what is called furlough and

network and you will be paid 80% of your pay. the problem is we haven't seen the detailed rules for this. we know it will cut the pay that you have in february. that is a short month, sort or every year but short. if you are working outwardly, that will affect your earnings. the revenue tell me they are aware that problem was up and they are looking at the solution but if you had very little work in february, and now you have got more, it will still be a february pay their accounts unless they come up with some solution. and you will get 80% of that. but of course, that may well not be enough because people on those contracts are in very little anyway i suppose. it is good that they have a partnership between them they might have the money but as i said, earlier on, benefits that if they wa nt to earlier on, benefits that if they want to claim those they will be counted as one unit of two individuals. and it will be there join earnings and income and savings that will be be reducing the amount

of benefits they can get. thank you, paulfor the answer. of benefits they can get. thank you, paul for the answer. i will stay with you. i want to read you a question from neil. he sent this in. he says this is a joke. not accessible untiljune. he says this is a joke. not accessible until june. what he says this is a joke. not accessible untiljune. what do i as accessible untiljune. what do i as a construction engineer do until then? element we've had a lot of questions like that. i've had them on e—mailand questions like that. i've had them on e—mail and twitter. questions like that. i've had them on e-mail and twitter. the reason the government gives them i don't wa nt to the government gives them i don't want to put the government point of view but the reason they give us that this is not brand—new, it is very complicated, hmrc is already struggling to introduce the scheme that was a nice two days ago. alice got to introduce this one. it will ta ke got to introduce this one. it will take time. the idea is that injune, you will get one payment and it will be... hello? carry-on. can you hear me? i be... hello? carry-on. can you hear me?ii be... hello? carry-on. can you hear

me? i i do. you said in june you will get one payment. i think we might bejust will get one payment. i think we might be just reconnecting to paul and a second. and we are reconnecting to claer as well. in the meantime, plenty more questions ican give the meantime, plenty more questions i can give people a sense of. i might re—want to or those just to give people a sense of what people are asking while we try to reestablish those lines. we will move forward a little bit while we establish those lines. 115 people have died in the uk in the past 2a hours — bringing the death toll to 578. it comes as hospitals in london are having to deal with a tsunami of patients and critical care beds at some sites in the capital could be full by the end of the week — that's the warning from the chief of nhs providers. he said the nhs is also having to deal with unprecedented levels of staff sickness. some intensive care units are already full.

patients will be transferred from next week to london's new temporary hospital — a vast conference centre in east london — that will have room for up to 4000 people. here's our health editor, hugh pym. the army comes to the aid of the nhs, helping shift urgently needed supplies of protective equipment like gloves and masks to hospitals, gp surgeries and other health staff to help them deal with coronavirus cases, with some areas already seeing large numbers. london, for example. the representative of major hospitals says in parts of the capital, they are struggling. the scale of the demand and the pace with which it's coming and the fact that they haven't got enough staff to meet it means it feels like a tsunami. in some places, they are really struggling. they're just about keeping their head above water, but in three or four places, it's clear that they will run out of critical care capacity probably by the weekend. patients will be found beds in other hospitals or, at some stage, here at a conference centre

in london's docklands, with temporary wards for up to 4,000 patients. once again, the army is helping the health service with the preparations. in the east midlands, priya is getting ready. she is a doctor who has been shifted from her normal work to care for covid—19 patients. it's like we're preparing for another war. it is scary because we have never had this. i have worked in multiple health systems before and we have never faced anything of this sort. at least, i've neverfaced it. and most of the doctors haven't, so we're very anxious on the inside, but we don't let that come in our way. jo is a vicar who is now looking after her sick parents. she fell ill and stayed at home, was tested, but didn't get the results for two weeks. she had the virus. she is frustrated that she couldn't warn people she had met, some of whom are in hospital. it is really heartbreaking. so please, stay away.

assume everybody has got it. call it a plague, not a virus. everybody gets viruses. everybody thinks, "0h, it's another virus". this is not another virus, this is a plague. stay away from everybody. and mark, who's spoken before about his condition, today said he was on the mend. i want to thank all the staff in the ulster hospital who are looking not just after me, but so many other coronavirus patients. i also want to thank all the nhs staff across the uk. for now, most hospitals are preparing specialist wards and hoping they can safely care for the coronavirus patients. hugh pym, bbc news. you probably rumbled our little trick that whenever the lines go down we all of a sudden play quite a long report to allow us to reconnect

with our guest. it has been done in record time and it has been done with both paul and claer. i am extremely glad about that. we will go right back pretending nothing went wrong. paul, we will carry on with you, essentially let me summarise neil posner question. he said it is a joke and the money is not accessible untiljune. i wonder would you take your answer from the beginning? yes of course. the government that it is a difficult thing to do and have this extra system thing to do and have this extra syste m o n thing to do and have this extra system on top of the one they announced the other day to do. they have to check the forms and also giving people who haven't filed their 18—19 tax returns which should have been in byjanuary, they are giving them until the 23rd of april was that they will then let people apply, see who was eligible, and if i'm wrong there, i don't think people will have to apply. they will find you. that was the latest information i got. we they will make you a taxable grant equal to 80% of

the average profit over three months. and you will get that in one lump sum injune. but as has been said, you will not have that. before then. he used to pay. self—employed people can access one of these corona of viruses business continuity. —— and you still have to pgy- continuity. —— and you still have to pay. i know people have found those very ha rd to pay. i know people have found those very hard to get from their bank. all sorts of security and difficulties in their way. the banks are difficulties in their way. the banks a re really not difficulties in their way. the banks are really not playing the game i don't think on these loans. because they know they will get paid back because people will have this grant in touror because people will have this grant in tour or three months‘ time. because people will have this grant in tour or three months' time. thank you, paul. claer, iwill give you in tour or three months' time. thank you, paul. claer, i will give you a good right now. the next question. from jonathan. he asked still no word on temporary workers. i am employed by an agency on a job by job basis. they say i am not an

employee of theirs. yet i am not self—employed. so where do i go from here? unfortunately, the whole way this system has been designed shows us this system has been designed shows us what a complex patchwork we have in the employment system in the uk is that the people were employed by agencies, some people would describe themselves as being played by an umbrella company, finding they don't really fit into the category being held for either the employment scheme, a payg come or for the self—employed scheme. —— paye. to clarify, although it is not helpful for that colour the rule say if you wa nt for that colour the rule say if you want to claim help from this self—employed scheme they have announced today, he must be somebody who completes an annual tax return. that is the basic criteria. would probably describe yourself as a sole trader in the sense that you declare your income, your expenses and your profit and it is the profit number and the trading profit that you will

be receiving 80% of for three months which will be backdated to june, which will be backdated to june, which i accepted a long time for people to wait for. now the government has had to design this came from scratch. they claim it will cover 95% of self—employed people. but clearly there are a lot of groups who is emerging within hours of it being announced will not be covered by this safety net and people who work for agencies or umbrella companies are one and unfortunately, as we come within days of the current tax year come if you are for the whole of last year they suck the blood person, because you do not have the return from the 17-18 you do not have the return from the 17—18 tech unfortunately, you will not be able to access that support. -- if not be able to access that support. —— if you work for a whole year last year as a self—employed person. this syste m year as a self—employed person. this system will not work for you if you are in that situation and you have to go to the universal credit system which is made some improvement to but the wait times to get through to an adviser are still incredibly

high. another question to you. these questions are not always about what happened today. financial and economic questions really which have sprung up because of the crisis. the next says i am a subcontracted work at working for a cleaning company which employs me. this site is closed due to the virus. in the company cannot provide me with anotherjob. in company cannot provide me with another job. in my company cannot provide me with anotherjob. in my process the company cannot pay our monthly wages as we are subcontracted workers. what can i do she asked? the short answer, you'll have to take the course of the benefit system. that is the only option available to you. i've been trying to help other people today in a similar situation to you, whereby their employer decided not to apply for the furlough scheme where they can apply for workers who are on their payroll to receive 18% of their pay for the first three months partly because

companies will have to fund the upfront cost of some of that themselves and then claim it back. the tax office later. and there are a lot of people who are falling through the cracks of both of these games unfortunately, it will be reliant on the benefit system and that way it for the money to come through it which is not a very satisfactory answer for a money expert to you sitting at home, there are a few other things that i would mention again, think that will help ina mention again, think that will help in a small way, not perhaps a great enough way but a lot of the high street banks in the last two days have said they would not go ahead i'iow have said they would not go ahead now with the wrecking of the rates oi'i now with the wrecking of the rates on overdressed. it is only small amounts of money like several banks have said they will let people have a free overdrafts of £300 which is better than nothing because until re ce ntly better than nothing because until recently they would've charged you 40% interest per annum on that money come and also a lot of credit card companies are writing to the customers and saying that for the next three months they will not charge them or find them if they are unable to pay that much credit card

bill so they are various measures that are coming in they could help ina that are coming in they could help in a little way but unfortunately nothing that can help in a big way by replacing 80% of your salary is sounds like, frayed. thank you. we are getting a sense of how tough things will be for a lot of workers. i think you both have caught up so i will carry on normally. paul, a question from abdullah. a few figures in it. if the profit for the year is £10,000, is the monthly calculation going to be based on £10,000 or £10,000 per 12 months?m is going to be taken on an average of the last three years if they have three years data them if they did not they were taken over the last year or the last two years. they will work out what you have got on average per month. so it divide three years money by 36, two years by 2a and so on, it will then work

out 80% of that number and that will be your grant. it will cover three months. so multiply that by three for march, april and may if you like and the payment injune. the arithmetic is quite simple but of course it may not be very much for a lot of people. and there is another gi’oup lot of people. and there is another group that may well miss out and they are people who are self—employed but work through their own company and hmrc were very clear to me tonight in an e—mail that they are not covered by this game. so that will be another group of self—employed people who look upon themselves who will not be covered. to a nswer themselves who will not be covered. to answer the question, it is the average monthly profit that you have and you will get the three months worth of that injune. it is taxable. if you are watching and listening, that is the clear answer you are hoping for. let‘s move on to the next question. this is been

submitted by somebody who says what about those who are self—employed and haven‘t been able to show a profit? and those who don‘t claim benefits? as we have been hearing, this is the problem for you because it is all based on your trading profit. even if you haven't made a profit. even if you haven't made a profit for all three of the years that the tax authorities can look back over a you are right by the way in saying that you don't contact hmrc about this. they have our data. they will be contacting us. i will be based on the average of your trading profit for the last three years. i spoke to a lady earlier on today who is an entrepreneur, she set upa today who is an entrepreneur, she set up a travel business unfortunately, which of course ash is falling apart in the last few weeks, she had been doing what but a lot of people much a business to which is not paying themselves a salary in not making a profit for the first couple years of operation because they hope they are building something up that will be of value for the future and of course she will not be entitled to any help under this scheme because she has a

made a trading profit. it is not ideal but unfortunately that is the reality of the scheme may be invented. a few minutes left. we really wa nt invented. a few minutes left. we really want to try and get to our questions. i will slightly speed up how i read them. you don‘t have to speed up how you answer but if you can give quite brief answers i would really appreciate that. paul, your turn. you‘re on the even numbers tonight. your question. as a freelance television floor manager, short—term contracts would pay by fpa why e, is there any help from me. i lost all my work but don‘t seem to fall in the category of employee or self—employed. —— paid by paye. 0ne employee or self—employed. —— paid by paye. one of the big problems of many parts of the workforce. i'm very familiar with it with my work at the bbc. there are people who look around themselves really self—employed but are what call workers and paid through paye. in theory, you should be covered by this scheme announced a few days

ago. go on and get paid. the problem is if you‘re between contracts, and don‘t actually have somebody you now, then you are going to fall outside of this game and i don‘t see that you will be covered by this self—employed skiing. i should add that the detailed report of both schemes have not been published. we are promised the detail of the furlough scheme later tonight and still have not got them. i imagine this up and play scheme will come out a bit later. but we need those those detailed rules to answer some of these questions but i fear that interment will follow outside both of them. if you haven't got the rules, nobody has come up all. question number 90 claer. this is from heather. —— nobody has come up. the potential of a it will say they will be paid 80% of their earnings over the last three years, what happens to those who are in permanent employees three years and two years ago and then switch to freelance during the last year as

has heather‘s son. freelance during the last year as has heather's son. what they have sent today in the announcement is that if you have got three years worth of tax receipts, then they will look at all three and work out an average. but if you only have one, it will take it from one. but he cannot be for the current texture that was still in 2019, 20. it has to bea that was still in 2019, 20. it has to be a tax return for the one before. —— the current tax year. if your son has done a tax return for that year, heather, and if the majority of his earnings, ie more than 50%, or from self—employment income a lot of self—employed people have also got a paye job and mix—and—match and might have a site has so, you have to get the majority of your income via cell phone plummet claim via this game in the crucial tax return is the one from the 18-19 crucial tax return is the one from the 18—19 tax year. if you put in one of those and i was the main

source you one of those and i was the main source you should be able to get something even if he only has one year of accounts. thank you. really interesting question that i think a lot of us will be on our minds. from bolivia. she asked this we would just like to know how the tax authorities will be contacting the self—employed to make sure that we are not scams. —— from bolivia. how can they trusted when they contact them? what evidence do they need to? we don‘t know the answer to that. it isa we don‘t know the answer to that. it is a big problem. of course there are scams out there. people are contacting us by e—mail and text and call saying we are from hmrc and will give you £258. they are all crooks. all of these. don‘t answer them. how this will be different i don‘t know. one technique that can be used is to e—mail you and send you digits of your unique tax

reference number or perhaps half of your postcode. there are ways that hmrc can do that. if you have any doubts about it, this won‘t be happening tilljune, so let‘s talk more about it when we know exactly what they would do, then you should ignore it and then called the revenue on the number eight that you find and check if that two the want to add anything? hmrc have said they will make the payments directly into the bank accounts of self—employed people injune. the bank accounts of self—employed people in june. it the bank accounts of self—employed people injune. it will probably have your bank details if you are paying them a tax bill so it will be very wary of anybody before june who phoned you and says we need you to make an interim payment and we will give you the rest. the tax office would not do that and there has been so would not do that and there has been so many brought already to do with the virus. it must be guarded against. that is a fantastic final word. thank you both forjoining us and bearing what that‘s and thank

you for your answers to our viewers. thank you both. —— so many frauds already to do. the royalfamilyjoined the nation in showing their support for the nhs this evening. you probably recognise these three. princess charlotte, prince louis and prince george put their hands together for the health services that have been working to combat coronavirus. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello many parts of the country saw the sun shining today. but we were stuck under a ban of cloud affecting much of scotla nd ban of cloud affecting much of scotland and northern ireland. that is still there. bringing some rain and drizzle mainly across scotland, to the south, clear skies for england and wales and like last night there will be another widespread frost. maybe a frost in the northwest of scotland. to the north of that ban of cloud. an increasing amounts of sunshine come

again. in the odd shower. central and southern scotland still dull and messy and damp. it may well brighten up messy and damp. it may well brighten up at times across northern ireland but the city or skies will be across england and wales. probably more of a breeze mind you on friday. temperature is not quite as high as today when we made 18 degrees. 0ver the weekend, the weather changes more significantly, still high—pressure, building, the winds are going to be strengthening and dragging down more cloud and dragging down more cloud and dragging down more cloud and dragging down cold airfrom the earth. it will feel colder for all of us this weekend.

this is bbc world news america. reporting from new york, i‘m laura trevelyan. a record number of americans have lost their jobs, as the economy reels from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. italy takes a turn for the worse. there‘s now growing concern about the rising number of infections in southern italy. plus, in need of entertainment, with no place to go. how streaming services are filling the gap, for the millions stuck at home. to our viewers on pbs, and to those in the uk and around the globe, welcome to world news america. the us passed a grim milestone today.