Frodsham MP Mike Amesbury has called on the Chancellor to urgently fix employment support schemes amid fears many are still slipping between the cracks.

In this column, he explains his concerns.

Ever since the first lockdown was unveiled earlier this year, many employees, freelancers, contractors and other self-employed workers have not been eligible for government support.

Along with colleagues, I have repeatedly called on the chancellor to plug the gaps. This week Chancellor Rishi Sunak resurfaced after a 41-day absence from Parliament to deliver an economic 'update' that contained nothing new.

The Labour Party are urging the Chancellor to:

· Update the eligibility criteria so that people who started new jobs after 31 October can qualify for support.

· Plug the gaps in the self employment income support scheme, which is unchanged almost a year after it was first introduced in haste.

· Redirect some of the £2 billion in business rate relief returned to the Treasury by supermarkets and other large retail businesses to support those who have been excluded from support for over nine months.

The Federation of Small Businesses has warned that a quarter of a million small businesses are at risk of folding, putting Britain's recovery at risk.

After the 2008 financial crash, research by the independent Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) showed that small and medium-sized businesses were central to the recovery in the labour market, accounting for 84 per cent of jobs growth between the start of 2010 and the start of 2013.

Since the first tranche of government support was announced earlier this year I've been inundated with calls and emails from constituents who don't qualify and have been left absolutely desperate for help.

With vaccines being rolled out, we know this pandemic will not last forever - but we have to ensure we don't come through the other side with all of these jobs and businesses lost.

This short-termism is wasteful and grossly unfair to people who've build livelihoods and businesses and find themselves in desperate situations through no fault of their own.

Now is the time to support them, the government must step up.