Gov to fund furlough scheme at 80% until October!

[caperberries]

Aibu to consider this unsustainable? What is the reasoning behind this?

Don't know why people cry about this ive been furloughed not my choice and will be for a while yet. What do you want us to live on please if our workplace isn't allowing us to go back ?
Really would love the people complaining to come up with a solution as to how we will be paid if we can't work and our children can't go to school do you want us to live on fresh air and lose the roof over our heads ?

I'm furloughed in an industry which is on its knees but will bounce back to some extent. Of course I welcome this and I'm baffled that anyone can see it as a bad thing. All of us who are furloughed are paying tax and NI at normal levels, so if we were all to claim UC instead that next revenue would be lost. By keeping a reasonable amount of money in our pockets we can also continue to pay our bills and support the wider economy by having some spending power still, albeit reduced. If I was to go on UC I would no longer need childcare so my CM wouldn't be paid, I'd not bother with a window cleaner or milkman as I'd have more time on my hands to shop and clean. Multiply by e everyone on furlough and the economy still takes a huge hit from the knock on effects. This is clearly the right thing to do. And I'm certainly not 'sat on my arse' at home loving life. I'm worried sick, not sleeping, struggling with DS missing school and I've lost the house I was buying.

@LaurieFairyCake Does your f2f have any info from her brewery as to how they are things going forward on an operational level 're distancing?

It's a fancy cocktail bar with waitress service (she's the chief 'mixologist' ) - she says that they will only be able to fill every other table and the bar area where they mix the drinks is too small to distance properly

She says the owners trying to decide whether it's financially viable if half full

I'm pleased for people who get this but I'll be honest I am a bit bitter. I run my own small company and I'm falling through the cracks and I haven't made a penny in income since April.

I'm ok. I can use savings but it's frustrating that the government are shafting small businesses while being so generous with employees

More fool me I guess.

@millymollymoomoo - so what's your suggestion for industries which can work (at home) but whose order book has dried up because of the situation, and will take a while to build back up? Bin us off?

zoemum2006 so sorry to hear that! Do you qualify for any of the self employed schemes?

Where will the money come from? Have you any idea how much we've spent on Brexit so far?

Ooh I don't know where f2f came from
Loving chief mixologist, I have a few friends in same types of industry furloughed for now but worried if they have a future.
Here's hoping.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers Thank you. That's kind. I own the business and I'd be able to claim a very small amount (80% of my tax free allowance) but I'd have to furlough myself. I am still working (mainly rescheduling clients postponed weddings) but I'd have to pretend I wasn't and that dishonestly sits badly with me given that I'd only get a very small amount.

I get really annoyed at people inferring that people are taking advantage of the furlough scheme and that business closed that didn't have to.

I would like a list of these businesses that closed unnecessarily. My guess is that lots of businesses closed that weren't directly told to do so, but had to because they were, perhaps, manufacturers who make products to order for retailers, who were told to close and - therefore - had no one to produce for.

Or who had to close because they can't social distance in their factories or warehouses.

Lots of businesses are parts of supply chains - and any part of that chain closing produces a knock on to the others.

What should they have done? Stay open and keep people in work to sit around by phones that never ring? While spending money on wages and buildings with no income?

Or furlough and stay adrift?

So don't buy the crap about businesses closing needlessly. I'm almost sure there are not many who took that decision. Businesses and business owners want to be trading. I

I think that some businesses closed due to staff pressure.
Remember the first couple of weeks when people were screeching that if you went out YOU WERE KILLING PEOPLE!
I saw essential businesses owners harassed for opening.

I also believe some people saw some furloughed workers enjoying barbecues and great weather and wanted some of it.

The question is where will the money come from ??

I'll answer that.

Work it out.

33k dead... 89% no longer on state pension, attendance allowance, hospital and care homes (at £890 a week avg for an extra 15 years) ..

Really , the cost compared to that is minimal. The poor (as in entitled to care home fees) were the sacrificial lambs that have enabled this 'generosity'

Of course it's inevitable that taxation will have to be increased significantly. I recall that when I started work in the 1970s, when the nation was much poorer than it has been of late, the basic rate of income tax was 33% and the top rate was about 90%. Also there was very little personal allowance before income tax kicked in. Maybe we'll have to return to that sort of scenario

DH and I moved home and had a baby weeks before CV hit. We planned, progressed our careers and saved so hard to make that happen but as with most of the ‘squeezed middle’ our income/outgoings are well balanced. If they raise taxes it will massively hit DH’s salary and as our main earner (I earn a lot less) we won’t be able to afford our mortgage, I doubt the bank will simply let us off so we’ll have our house repossessed and credit scores ruined.
I should mention that DH is an intensive care Dr.... what a lovely way for the country to say thank you for all his sacrifice.

I should mention that DH is an intensive care Dr.... what a lovely way for the country to say thank you for all his sacrifice very sorry for your predicament but you are being a bit ridiculous, you do realise millions of families have zero income right now- we have to support everyone as best we can.

tappitytaptap - agree. Particularly galling when you are struggling to WFH due to neighbours blasting music through the walls, or laughing as all their mates come round for a BBQ, all having the time of their life on furlough.

However Whatsmyname26 thanks for making me think that I'm lucky to be paid my full (unexceptional) wage - it must be even more distressing for those on the pittance that is UC/JSA/Carer's allowance/PIP etc to realise that the money to pay them more was there all the time...

My DH is also an ITU consultant. We will have to suck it up.

@CountryCasual of course everyone is grateful, but you must appreciate you are in a far better position than two people 9n near minimum wage for example? I know there are issues bit doctors ARE reasonably well paid, especially at the more senior level which most process too.

I don't understand where some people think furlough wages go.

Them seem to think furloughed workers get paid, take it all out of the cashpoint and then set fire to it, use it as bog paper or eat it or something.

No, it goes straight back into the economy...especially in the case of low paid workers.

That's the point surely.

...and why it's 80%...to stop people saving the 20% instead of putting it straight back out there to support as many other workers/councils/businesses as possible.

It's just going round and round, passing through the government coffers every so often.

Yes how dare people even smile when furloughed

It's ridiculous. We will get huge inflation and our kids and grandkids will be paying for this for years. In the meantime, everyone still working is paying huge amounts of tax so that others can sit around until October. They are keeping many companies that would naturally have failed on life support. And for all this tax those still working have to pay, they get no or reduced access to the NHS, no public services and no schooling. I am surprised there aren't riots!

What would you propose as an alternative?

We have to support everyone as best we can
Causing people who are still in work to lose their homes isn’t supporting everyone as best we can.

everyone still working is paying huge amounts of tax so that others can sit around until October what a vile attitude / you don’t think most people would prefer their livelihoods back?!
So you think only those who pay tax should have access to services? What about a finance director- do his children deserve a superior level of teaching in school to a child of a cleaner?