are furloughed people the new benefit scroungers?

[ghostmous3]

According to some posts that are doing the rounds on shitebook they are

Before lockdown people moaned about the 'feckless workshy' now the vitriol is aimed at the 'furloughed sitting on thier bums on beaches spreading germs, how dare they when weve got to work. We're paying for you're furlough'

I'm feeling bloody sensitive tonight. I didn't ask to be furloughed, I'm more than likely getting made redundant at the end of july and I dont go to beaches!

It’s really starting to annoy me now when I see the furlough bashing ( and I’m not furloughed myself ) I actually had a (getting a bit heated ) argument with someone quite near the start of this who was complaining about some people we know “ sitting around on full pay “ While they had to work . I pointed out they didn’t choose to be furloughed and it actually sounds a bit of a nightmare for a lot of people and I stand by that now .

The people I know are getting 80 percent and no employee top up
They are worried about losing their jobs Long term and Short term losing even more money as the furlough scheme continues ( they still cant work )
They miss their work friends and routine

I think some people are so overcome with jealousy at “paid time off “ they can’t see the reality .

My eldest DS ( student) had just started a job at MacDonalds and had done 2 shifts when we went into lockdown. He is being paid furlough of £67 a week which I was surprised about considering he had only just started.

I’m a teacher so I understand the upset of receiving vitriol about a situation you have no control over. It seems like society is becoming very divided. People are struggling to see past their own situations and looking for someone else to blame for their struggles.

One thing I don't think people have noticed is how fractured people have become and how many wedges coronavirus has rammed into society.

There is a superficial veneer to relationships at the moment with people putting up enormous fronts saying they are fine or in denial hiding behind various things. There are lots of things not being openly said. Lots of resentment building up.

I feel a huge rising level of tension building. I currently have no desire to talk to others and play a game of biting my tongue. I just feel like people are ready to explode, and go kaboom at each other.

The thing with social harmony and consensus is that it is built on people constantly communicating and exchanging ideas during the period they are forming an opinion. Once people form an opinion they don't tend to change it. They tend to become much more rigid in their thinking and less willing to listen to other ideas and reasoning.

People have not clocked it yet but I fear we are sitting on something of a time bomb of all that being released and frustrations spilling over.

Flash points are definitely schools, furlough, the clap and the accompanying net curtain surveillance amongst others.

I am just sick of the bullshit and the inability of people to see beyond their bubble tbh. It's awful and I hate it. In time it will play out in politics and fear what that will bring too. Nothing nice. People will go back to work and become busy and won't have time for the community. It will be left to people who volunteered pre crisis without praise and attention to carry on.

Lockdown is fine. Its what follows which worries me. And I don't mean a second wave.

I think it's a a ridiculous suggestion. No one has chosen to be furloughed, before March I hadn't ever heard the word furloughed!

I do think some employers have been sneaky furloughing their staff when there is work there, but that's not on the employees.

@Justanotherscumbag thanks for your answer to my post. You make good points.

decisions have to be made and made on the information available at the time, with the best interests of society as a whole to consider.

Yes, absolutely. It’s important to remember that these decisions are being made to try to get the best outcome for everybody overall.

There is a safety net already. It's now called universal credit. That is the safety net. It was considered an acceptable amount of money to survive on before (I don't think it is but a majority did) so it should be enough now.
Or, furlough is something different and is related to industries that the government says must close, for instance. Well now .. aa of last week .. that's a lot of businesses that wouldn't be getting it. And would close or open. Then everyone might wake up a little earlier to the economic shitstorm coming our way.
Why not redeploy furloughed workers if it is a different scheme to universal credit ie voluntary sector? Or do they get to not look for work if they don't feel like it, or get an extra job as well if they fancy? At least on UC you have to look for work
Plus the s/e businesses I know are coining it as they are making staff keep working while furloughing them - so free labour.

What kind of system is this??

If it was a basic universal income I'd be getting a bit more money. As it is, I am working double hours, I am exhausted, and people are sat at home on almost full salaries in the sun. We'll all be in the same boat come September - no jobs. If it's the new future, I want to be on the other side. Six months in the sun on full salary or almost full salary and no obligation to do fuck all. Sounds better than what I have. I've had to spend £500 + just so I can keep working at home, so even the cut in salary would be offset by no extra expenses.

My personal view on it though is that a person on furlough, taking another ft position, removes that position for others to do, like those already redundant or those who were seeking work when this started. The money would go back into the economy that way and instead of having one person on furlough at the same time as earning a wage, and another on benefits, you'd have one person on furlough and one earning a wage. I realise it's quite a simple view, and I by no means judge anyone doing it, everyone needs to do what's right for them during this while also trying to consider the wider aspects. Sometimes the two clash which is unavoidable really.

There are some situations where this is true, but it's also undeniably the case that there are sectors where they do need workers despite the presence of lots of people without work. Usually these are jobs where people need to be physically out of the home so can't simultaneously perform caring responsibilities, and often where social distancing isn't possible, like care. This means they're simply not doable for a lot of people who are out of work now. It isn't as easy as full time job going, person who wants full time work, put the two together and problem solved.

Something like care work, for example, had a recruitment problem well before all this. If there are people who would be willing and able to do that job in the middle of a pandemic while millions are told to stay at home and there are severe restrictions on available childcare, we would be foolish to place any disincentive in their way.

Something is not a safety net if it means you will lose your home and there is no where else to go because you can't afford anything else and demand for emergency is so high that it exceeds available accommodation.

The idea of a safety net has to be meaningful. In practice in the UK, it no longer is.

"Life is political. How can it not be?

And while I'm here, yes it is about the Tories, though many MNers are too young to have experienced its genesis in the Thatcher years,"

Exactly and its worth reminding people that the Tories really are The Nasty Party.

Fuck of .... what do they expect solo mums to do with their children all day when there’s no school? I can’t go to work because my area of the business is currently not classed as important when the stores are closed. Furlough I thought was designed to keep the money moving, so us spending whilst off and so that if we can get the economy going again we can return to our jobs .

The furlough scheme was always a blunt instrument. There will undoubtedly be individuals and companies that could have continued working / returned sooner, but it was impossible to finesse the scheme in the time available. Of course it is preferable to millions of people losing their jobs and homes. How would that benefit any of us in the long run?

I think Labour would have put the furlough scheme in control of employees and unions and it would have been a disaster.

It's been nice to hear that employers deserve help and that we aren't all a bunch of greedy bastards.

I think the government and the media promote this when the actual scroungers are companies that make huge profits from low paid workers and tax avoidance then get bailed out by the government using tax payers money that they have made a very minimal contribution to. France, Poland, Denmark and Scotland are only helping companies that have contributed to the country. It would make a difference if everywhere else followed suit.

Yes, they are.

And doesn't it just suit the government to have people at each other's throats instead of being angry with the ineptitude of Johnson and his crew and the daily diet of lies they are feeding us. Ditto the fury between "dementors" and "anti-dementors" etc.

Those who are slating the furloughed aren't very intelligent so I wouldn't take their opinions too seriously. Anyone with half a brain cell can see what a shit position it is to be furloughed, and, although I am lucky enough to not be furloughed, many of my friends are, and they are worried sick about the future of their roles.

The obtuse criticising the furloughed don't seem to be able to comprehend that being furloughed makes your position way more vulnerable than still being fully employed.

I would be devastated if I was furloughed. Dramatic perhaps, but I know what dire consequences that position would be for my mental and emotional health.

I hope everything works out for you and you don't lose your job, I can imagine how stressed and worried you are

Furloughed are being scorned over social media and on here by some people. It's not nice and the vast majority of people furloughed have no say in the matter. The jobs are currently not there to do and some will lose their jobs anyway.... for some it's just delaying unemployment. For others there will be jobs to return to thankfully.

I imagine some that are furloughed might have previously critised the unemployment or people on benefits and now realise it isn't nice. Furlough of course means more money that most people on benefits normally but they are now getting some of the horrible comments or envy....

I am glad I have an income and working. It is hard but at least I don't have the financial worries that some do.

It is human nature to look at others and compare and perhaps cherry pick the nice you see eg staying home in the lovely weather... but then ignore the negatives of that position.

Yep. The attitude on here towards those who have been furloughed is absolutely disgusting. I don't see it outside of MN, though.

People aren't furloughed so they can have a nice eight week holiday in the sun. They're furloughed because there's no work for them now, and if the scheme ends and there's still no work, they'll be made redundant. Similarly if companies realise they can manage without them, they'll be made redundant.

If companies are abusing the scheme and furloughing people to save money, that's on them, not on those who have been furloughed though no fault of their own.

I am angry, furious, about our government ineptitude. Lockdown was too late, now it's dragging on forever. Furlough was good as an initial response but dragging it on, til June was bad enough, but now September? Time enough to make it only apply to industries closed on public health grounds. And schools ... stayed open throughout in Sweden ... are reopening elsewhere. This lockdown is shit and I am not in favour of it. Ditto the furlough scheme. Where is the bloody app that we had to develop all by ourselves? The testing is slow. The ppe was a major fuckup. And everyone terrified to leave the house - also on the government.
I am pissed off today. Probably because I am bloody knackered with all the work I have to do. Enjoy your day in the garden

What are people supposed to do if they are told they are being furloughed? Say no thanks, don’t keep my job open, I’ll go on the dole?

Sounds like jealousy to me. I’d be worried that my job wouldn’t be there for long when this all ends.

I think that some degree of envy is probably inevitable, but expressing it nastily and publicly isn't. I do envy the people furloughed at my work - they're topped up to full pay and it was done by teams whereas redundancies will be across teams, so they're no more vulnerable. Meanwhile I have an increased workload which I'm trying to do around caring for a toddler. I totally think they got lucky! I wouldn't post on social media about it though, or say it to them, or anyone at work. We all have thoughts we're not proud of but they shouldn't be directed to people that they might hurt.

People are horrible and probably jealous. They're looking at it as though it's a holiday and not seeing the stress of worrying about jobs to go back to. This is a stressful and worrying time for everyone and divisions are really unhelpful. Would a Conservative government be volunteering to pay a large chunk of people's wages for them not to go to work for no reason? Those nasty posters sound like people you can do without in life!

My job is just as insecure, if not more, than those furloughed. But I know there will be no nice full salary scheme waiting for me in September. I don't expect those currently furloughed will be saying that's not fair when they are back at work and I am on UC. We are not all in this together, the pretence we are is sickening.

Yes of course they are

We must keep up the supply of groups to hate.

How would our society function without the scapgoats?

We are not all in this together, the pretence we are is sickening.

Same storm different boats.

Demanding totally ‘equality’ right now is unrealistic.

What do you think should have happened instead of furlough?

You really arent listening nohardsell

There are many many people on furlough that wont have jobs to back to. I'm one of them. My industry has made 1000s redundant already. After July it's very very unlikely I will have a job at all. I will be on universal credit just like you

Dp was furloughed early on, hes gone back to work now but work has dried up again and now he is facing the same prospect. Furlough followed by redundancy. We are both on minimum wage.

Dont blame the workers blame the govt if you must and the media for creating this horrible divide