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London taxi drivers receive fake messages telling them their licences have been suspended
London taxi driver representatives have confirmed messages sent to cabbies notifying them their licences were suspended are fake.
In the fake message sent to London taxi drivers it says: 'It has come to the attention of the Public Carriage Office that you have received government self employed funding whilst still working as normal, this is a breach of government guidelines.
'Evidence has been submitted and will be shared with yourself and your representative should you appoint one.
'With immediate effect your licence has been suspended. We will write to you with further information.'
United Cabbies Group said via social media: “Ladies and Gentlemen it’s been brought to our attention that some drivers are receiving these text messages.
“Please ignore these messages as they’re not from TfL. This has been clarified by TfL that these are fake. Thank you and stay safe.”
It is unclear at this stage who sent the fake messages and for what motive.
Currently, some taxi drivers eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) have been able to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of their average trading profits up to a maximum of £7,500, paid in a single instalment to help cover some of the losses caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The SEISS payment was back dated to cover March, April and May, but there has been no further details on how the government will support the five million self-employed workers from June onwards.
Self-employed workers have been allowed to keep working, where possible, and still receive money from the scheme. Workers can also choose to get another job as an employee somewhere else during the COVID-19 period, but should remember will only stay eligible for the scheme if they plan to continue trading in this tax year.
Taxi drivers, like millions of other self-employed workers, are currently being anxiously left in the dark with the government support package set to end this week.
