When a songwriter does a gig or even performs at a singaround he or she can register their performance on PRS and claim a small fee - over the year it can add up to quite a sizeable amount; they also get paid when someone else covers their song. This is financed by the venues annual licence fee to PRS. At the moment with no venues songwriters are losing this money as well as gig fees, although PRS did arrange an emergency payment in April.

This sounds like a well intentioned move which has backfired.

I suppose it might be got round by making it a free event with a "tip jar" a format in quite common use at the moment.