I know how worried people are.
Worried about their health, the health of their loved ones,
their jobs, their income, their businesses, their financial security.
For a period it's going to be tough
but I'm confident that our economic performance will recover.
Taken together, the extraordinary measures I have set out today
represent seven billion pounds to support the self-employed,
businesses and vulnerable people.
To support the NHS and other public services,
I am also setting aside today a five billion pound Emergency Response Fund
and I will go further if necessary.
Whether it's research for a vaccine, recruiting thousands of returning staff,
or supporting our brilliant doctors and nurses,
whether it's millions of pounds or billions of pounds, whatever it needs
whatever it costs, we stand behind our NHS.
Statutory sick pay will also be available for all those who are advised
to self isolate, even if they haven't yet presented with symptoms.
And rather than having to go to the doctors,
you will soon be able to obtain a sick note by contacting 111.
But of course not everyone is eligible for statutory sick pay
There are millions of people working hard, who are self-employed
or in the gig economy. They will need our help too.
So, to support them during this period we will make it quicker and easier
to access benefits.
Those on contributory employment and support allowance
will be able to claim from day one instead of day eight.
And to make sure that time spent off work due to sickness
is reflected in your benefits, I'm also temporarily removing
the minimum income floor in universal credit.
And I'm relaxing the requirement for anyone
to physically attend a job centre.
Everything can be done by phone or online.
I am also creating a £500m hardship fund,
distributed to local authorities who will be able to use that fund
to directly support vulnerable people in their local area.
For businesses with fewer than 250 employees,
I have decided that the cost of providing statutory sick pay
to any employee off work due to coronavirus will,
for up to 14 days, be refunded by the government in full.
I have asked HMRC to scale up the time to pay service
allowing businesses and the self-employed
to defer tax payments over an agreed period of time.
Banks will offer loans of up to £1.2 million and,
to support small and medium-sized businesses.
The government will offer a generous guarantee
on those loans, covering up to 80% of losses
with no fees so that banks can lend with confidence.
This is a budget delivered in challenging times.
We will rise to this moment, we will get through this together.
This budget delivers security today but it also lays
the foundations for prosperity tomorrow.