It is not a surprise that countries are experiencing the most severe economic downturn for months, because of the pandemic spread. The Counsel General and Minister for European Transaction, who is also a leader of a Wale’s recovery from the pandemic, said that COVID-19 had a significant impact on the world. There are not only health risks in the country, but the jobs are at risk and the public finances are getting more and more vulnerable. No doubt, that Wales is facing huge challenges and they need to work on it as soon as possible.
20% of Welsh businesses are temporarily paused or closed for trading and 65% had experienced a huge decrease in turnover. Many sectors were hit more than others. These are food and beverage, arts, recreation, startups, and people who are working from their homes – Freelancers.
As for every country, for Wales also, freelancers are very important. That is why Wales shared a £7m fund, which will be a big helping hand for a freelance sector because they were hit hardest from the COVID-19 pandemic.
From Monday 4th October, individuals will be allowed to apply for a £2,500 grant. They will need eligibility before applying. The process will be checked by eligibility checked for the Cultural Recovery Fund. The scheme will be including the guidance and the questions that need to be answered by the individuals.
This fund will help only the att and creative industries, meaning that only people who get this help from the government will be those whose work has a direct connection with the creative sector.
The freelance sector is very important for the Welsh economy because a significant number of freelancers are working in order to help themselves and the whole economy of the country. It goes without saying that it is good that Wales is helping the people who are working from home, but there are other sectors that are oppressed because they are not getting any help from the country and they are doing no less than people from the art sectors. For example, there are thousands of people who are included in the Forex currency trading systems and they are also having some trouble dealing with the less income. These people are also helping the economy by the work they are doing from homes, and they are in the huge foreign exchange market which is in direct contact with the economy of the country, but somehow they are forgotten. According to Axiory, a mid-sized FX brokerage, many financial traders could potentially qualify for this fund if they are not only traders but also providers of financial information on their own accord, but sadly they can not because the funds are only provided for those, who are in direct contact with the creative sector. The traders are in a bad place right now because of the financial stress around the whole financial system. They are trying different ways to survive from the crisis. Some of them are even moving on the different strategies of trading, meaning that they are even moving on different markets in order to have more profits. In order to help to promote market efficiency, they are researching how to use forex arbitrage, because this type of trading will help not only them but the country’s economy also. It is a massive disappointment in the trading sector because they were always by the side of the country when the economy needed help, and now they are left behind the other sectors.
The last six months was hard not only for workers across the creative industries but also for the other sectors who were trying to survive this whole economic crisis. Many have been unable to come back to their countries and continue working there. The employment income support scheme should have been more diligent with other industries too.
In the future, the Welsh government will be working on a Freelancer’s authorities and this is the first time such major funding has been happening in the sector of freelancers. This will give a huge opportunity to creative freelancers to connect better.
How will this affect the freelancers?
The partnership between freelancers and the government will be a huge solution to the problems in the art industry. To build a healthy environment among freelancers they also need to think about other industries in order to keep and treat everyone equally. This support and training will be available for those who will have a passion to participate in it.
