Gwent Music Abandoned
Gwent Music Service was in the news yesterday evening when BBC Wales Today reported that a group of music teachers had been abandoned after an offer from Newport council to pay them during the coronavirus crisis was withdrawn.
Newport council reversed a decision to pay teachers at Gwent Music after the UK government announced its support scheme for self-employed workers. But some of the teachers have said they are not eligible for the scheme. Newport council said it was following a "nationally established scheme" to ensure fairness for the self-employed. The Treasury said the scheme was one of the most generous in the world. The 90 peripatetic, or travelling, music teachers, said the council has "washed their hands" of the service, which provides tuition for about 14,000 children across Newport, Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire and Torfaen.
Hannah Jeans-Wells, who has been a violin teacher for 18 years, works with Gwent Music but has been self-employed since January 2019 and said she was not eligible for the UK government's support scheme. "Some of us took redundancy last January, so we don't have the relevant accounts or the tax returns. They've forwarded us to HMRC and I have checked and I can't get any help," she said. "It just feels now like we are just left and we don't know what else to do."
Another teacher at Gwent Music, Niamh Aston, said she was eligible to claim through the UK government scheme, but has started working at a supermarket full-time to support her income. She said: "The council promised to look after us. They said 'no one should be in any financial hardship, whether you're employed or self-employed, we will look after you. We will pay you in full'. Now the council has just washed its hands of us and said 'sorry, we're not going to pay you'. I just wish the council would do something and recognise that this is seriously going to damage people's lives."
Martin Davis, the chairman of Friends of Gwent Music, said he feared for the future of the organisation. He said: "I really fear that this financial constraint that they are under - followed by the coronavirus coming in and this withdrawal of funds from local government does mean that the future of Gwent Music is looking very very bleak."
The BBC Wales Today Evening News item was broadcast at 6.30pm on BBC 1 Wales on Tuesday 21st April 2020 and features the massed bands of Gwent Music under the baton of Dr. Robert Childs performing Wagner's Procession to the Minster at their recent anniversary concert.
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