Thousands of taxi drivers 'missing out' on pandemic payments

Thousands of taxi drivers are "falling through cracks in the system" and missing out on vital payments aimed to help during the pandemic, a union says.

Shafaq Ahmed, of the App Drivers and Couriers Union, says drivers licensed in Wolverhampton but not living there were being denied a £2,000 payment.

It came at a time the self-employed drivers were losing money and "many have lost livelihoods", he said.

The city council said drivers should seek support where they lived.

Mr Ahmed, an Uber driver licensed in Wolverhampton for nearly four years, said he was unable to claim the one-off payment from the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme because he lived in Birmingham.

Birmingham City Council only gave the government grant to drivers both residing and licensed in the city, he said.

"If you take the money from your drivers for their licences you are responsible to support them," he said about Wolverhampton's council.

Cab drivers have previously protested about the authority, saying it was issuing too many licences.

BBC Midlands Today reporter Audrey Dias, who looked into Department for Transport figures, said Wolverhampton would face a bill of more than £36m if every driver it licensed was able to claim the grant.

Wolverhampton had 18,110 licensed taxi and private hire drivers in March 2020, compared to 6,340 in Birmingham, she said.

Mr Ahmed said up to 80% of those licensed in Wolverhampton did not live there.

He was joined in his call to the council by another driver, Ebrahim Suleman, who also said Wolverhampton Council had a "responsibility" to help the drivers.

The government said it was up to local authorities to decide who qualified for Additional Restrictions Grant funds but the Wolverhampton authority said it was designed to support self-employed drivers who lived in the city.

"The council is not able to extend the scheme outside the city of Wolverhampton boundary. Therefore, drivers living elsewhere should contact their local authority to see what support might be available to them," a spokesman said.

He added in turn it would consider applications from drivers "licensed by a different authority" who lived in the city.

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