Furlough scheme set to be extended to September (at reduced 60 percent rate)

[DreamChaser23]

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/05/10/job-retention-scheme-set-extended-september/

An announcement is likely today or tomorrow.

Thoughts?

I think 60 percent is an impossible amount to live on. Not to mention not everyone can go back to work (i.e. no social distancing measures), (the business is still shut) A lot more people will still struggle month to month.

Knowing the Tories I wouldn't be surprised if month by month they reduce furlough from 60 to 40 then eventually getting rid of the scheme...

so if DH had been furoughed, at 80% he would be £1400 a month worse off so actually he would be on just over half pay - 60% doesn’t even bear thinking about!

So the 80% to 60% change probably wouldn't make any difference to him (this is true of most higher earners). If the rule before was the lower of 80% of gross salary or £2500, then it became 60% of gross salary or £2500.. it sounds like he would still be on the £2500. Higher earners are already getting far less than 80% on furlough.

I think once the government say a certain industry can work like construction then furlough will be wound down allowing for part time work for a while and it will remain for those that can't re-open yet but when they think they can reopen whether June or July then they will be stopped too but it obviously can't go on for months,
all benefits allow you to have £6000 in savings ( more if you are retirement age)
Some people don't earn enough to save much, that's fine but when people have 2 brand new cars in the drive and spend £3000 on a holiday but complain they don't have a penny in savings in that case it is their own silly choices that mean they have no savings they shouldn't have spent every spare penny when they had plenty of spare pennies
this is not the same as berating someone that has to feed 4 people on £45 a week for not having savings; this is saying that people who routinely having £300-500 a month spare and didn't save any but kept spending were foolish
£6000 savings is equivalent to 3 months maximum furlough and doesn't affect benefits in any way , hopefully after this people will realise that maybe having a rainy day fund is more important than the latest iphone; brand new car, or holiday abroad, it is not more important that buying food heating and a roof over head

Some people are so spoilt. Take home pay of £2k a month is beyond many people’s wildest dreams, let alone for doing nothing.

so if DH had been furloughed, at 80% he would be £1400 a month worse off so actually he would be on just over half pay - 60% doesn’t even bear thinking about!

if he had just been made redundant he would be much worse off unless he had been then a long time but standard redundancy at 1 weeks pay per year doesn't go far

I’d jump at 60%, but my employer is wanting to just sack us all and employ people on zero hour contracts in the future instead of us.

Those saying that we should all be able to cope and have savings etc

Our lives changed forever last year, when dh (39) was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal bowel cancer with a 6-12 month life expectancy. At that point we had decent savings but I quit work to look after dh. Thankfully DH's work place have been amazing and he was working from home here and there, now on furlough. Our savings have now gone, it well and truly rained.

If DH's work decide to decide to reduce his wages to 60% we will be screwed. The choice I will have to make is go back to work as a front line nurse and not see dh in his last months of life or starve. With 3 teenage+ children universal credit won't be enough to cover our bills 🙁

loubieloo4 I'm so sorry to hear about your dh. It's heartbreaking.

And yes you're quite right - none of us know what's round the corner and unless you've got hundreds of thousands saved/in trust/from family, most of us, even the financially risk adverse, could be in your position very easily.

The salary cap on furlough means that at 80% of £2500 I am learning less than half my normal wage. Yes it sounds like a lot but we all cut our cloth according to what we normally earn (and I am in London where rent is ridiculous). I work in an industry that is unlikely to be able to start up soon. If they cut payments to 60% of £2500 It will be so far below my usual take home I won’t be able to cover my fixed outgoings. I have savings but they are supposed to be the house deposit I have been saving for, for years. If I have to use them and start again I may never be able to buy a place.

I know I am still in a better position than most but it is still gutting.

what stats are you referring to?

Mainly those from the unlamented Mr Ferguson and his team who've influenced so much, and and most predicting the late June fizzling out I mentioned (though to be fair there's still the question of "second waves", even though Austria, the Czech Republic, etc, haven't seen any since they eased up)

On "measures", we can continue up to a point with some we already have, or if that gets too expensive we could always use Sweden's approach after seeing that their predicted armageddon simply didn't happen

And yes, some venues and businesses may present challenges around re-opening, but that really needn't mean a mass continued shutdown of them all beyond the point where it's of any use

I earn minimum wage.... well actually it's less than minimum wage now as it was meant to go up in April but didn't because of furlough. Anyway, I'm grateful for the 80% I'm getting and will be grateful for 60% too if it comes to that. But I'm aware that we are incredibly lucky that OH is still working- his income has decreased due to lack of overtime but thankfully it's still enough that we can manage as long as we are careful. Longer term, having no job to go back to is a possibility and it's frightening.

In the medium term there will be redundancies in some sectors like pubs and other leisure facilities. The employees from these won't necessarily be on big wages, and the care sector is desperate for staff. That's an industry that is hiring.

You are kidding right? I am currently applying for every job going and every care job I look at wants 1-3 years caring experience and pretty much says don't bother applying if you don't have 1 year. It's not that easy to just get a care job.

Also I am vulnerable. Not shielded but I get the annual flu vaccine on the NHS every year (pushed to by my doctors) due to an autoimmune disease. I can still go out and could, for example perform a supermarket job where I stack shelves and interact with customers behind a Perspex screen but to put me into a care role which by its very nature involves close physical contact, and in some cases with individuals who don't understand social distancing so would happily cough all over me or hug me out of fear ect, is pretty much putting me to death.

@MamaGee09 people leave the hospitality industry and then come back supply and demand will always make an equilibrium in this situation even if it means their wages rise as a result of lower supply, so you'd actually be benefitting.

@loubieloo4 couldn't you claim a carers wage/allowance? I know many people do for looking after relatives instead of having a job

@TheFlis12345 no, we don't all cut our cloth from what we earn. Some do, and it's stupid. (Clearly proven now). Although this exact scenario could never be predicted, it's always very possible that you will lose income for whatever reason...

I think we need to wait on more clarification. I understand they wouldn't want people to stay on the if they can return to work but my DH is a chef so doesn't have that choice because his work can't open until July at the earliest.
I can maybe see them making different scenario's for different sectors but then it could become a huge mess very quickly. So who knows. 60% is not a lot, we couldn't cover our bills with that, as I'm sure a lot of people won't.
Fingers crossed we get some solid answers as soon as possible.

We’ve always cut our cloth within our means so would just tighten our belts again.

I have savings but they are supposed to be the house deposit I have been saving for, for years. If I have to use them and start again I may never be able to buy a place.

But house prices will plummet if the economy tanks, so it won't be as hard to save for the deposit if house prices are a lot cheaper.

Fingers crossed we get some solid answers as soon as possible.

Which we will. The media are doing a lot of damage with their speculation and whatifery. It was the same when lockdown started - the media couldn't wait a day for the official guidance to be published on the gov.uk website and basically broadcast what they thought would happen as fact. People need to learn a bit of patience and they also need to start looking at the official guidance on gov.uk rather than believing the half truths peddled by Laura Kuennberg and Robert Peston masquerading as news!

Sunak is speaking on it today.

@L777 It’s stupid to have outgoings in accordance to your income? So we should all spend the absolute minimum possible to live, just in case? I am well aware that income can be lost at any time (I have been made redundant twice!) hence I have saving that would cover my basic outgoings for more than a year. I was just hoping some of them could be used for a house deposit later this year but if they reduce furlough again it would mean I was getting less than 20% of my usual salary. Surely most people (including you) don’t plan their outgoings based on that potential scenario?!?

@TheFlis12345 surely if your income is high enough that the furlough amount is only 20% of your salary then you have savings for situations where you won’t get paid?

@L777 I’ve always been a sensible person with several thousand in the bank in an emergency fund. But two years ago my husband was very ill and off work for five months on SSP. So we used some of the emergency fund to survive. He was back at work a few months and then collapsed again- ended up back in hospital for another round of operations and complications. He’d only just got back to full strength and been able to work full time around Xmas. So we’ve pretty much lost a full salary for over a year and had to make a big dent in the emergency fund, and hadn’t been able to put it back before my work shut down and furlough happened. My job is gone for good. Life changes suddenly and even the best plans can go wrong. Don’t judge people when you don’t know the full picture..

I’ll be gutted but as a family who has survived 5 redundancies we will survive again. 60% will be much preferred to redundancy and no pay

@Mirrorxx Yes, as I said, I have savings that would cover my basic outgoings for more than a year. But to get that higher salary we live in London where living costs are extremely high. We were hoping to buy at the end of the year (a mortgage would be quite a bit cheaper than our rent!) but if I have to use all my savings to live on then that will be impossible.

@ TheFlis12345 I think it’s unfortunate if you have to use your savings but the government can’t take on this level of debt just so people can buy a house. Just like their being a cap on savings and universal credit