To be sad that there will be no £500 vouchers

[benadrylcucumberpatch]

Being able to make a frivolous purchase definitely would have got me back to the shops!

I would of been happier with a free coffee in Costa.

I still can't believe they haven't guaranteed full pay for anyone who needs to be off sick for coronavirus or who has been told to self isolate. At the moment lots of people are only entitled to SSP, so can't actually afford to be off sick. It doesn't tempt me into a restaurant whilst still wondering if the staff would actually be able to afford to go off sick if they did get coronavirus, and would therefore go into work regardless :-( The government still need to take action to reduce the spread of the virus before my confidence will come back to eat out, vouchers or no vouchers.

I’m quite looking forward to eating out to help out!
Made me laugh a bit though that it was on the same page of the paper as Jennie Harries telling us to lose weight!

@Ilovegreentomatoes
If you have the Costa app you get 300 points, so a free coffee.

catsarecute you’re absolutely right, unfortunately it might lead them down a “slippery slope” of giving proper sick pay to all employees in general not just coronavirus. And then where would we be? (A better world, but one that would cost them and their big business mates money so they would disagree)

I do worry about some of these schemes having to be paid back. I don't benefit from the stamp duty as not buying, won't benefit from the green grant as I don't own, all the vat cuts will be to benefit businesses and the savings wont be passed on, so the only thing I may actually benefit from is the half price meals, which I probably won't be able to afford the half price due to it being August and time to fork out for school uniform and bus passes for the dc.

I don't want my tax to go up just so homeowners can get double glazing and no stamp duty.

Anyone else think this scheme would have saved the jobs of all those boots and John Lewis employees by making people shop on the high street. Now all those people will need to claim help because the government decided on some stupid schemes that do not benefit this sector.

I’d mentally already spent mine! DD needs a new keyboard and I could have spent it in a lovely independent music store.
The restaurant thing is bollocks. DH has to keep shielding for as long as possible. Even if he does go back into work there will be no visits to restaurants.

@Picklypickles

I'd have preferred a £500 voucher, I would much rather buy things we need like new clothes/shoes or money to help with the food shop etc than eating out, I'm fat enough already!

Exactly this !!! Give us retail vouchers instead so we can buy decent shoes etc. A weeks food shop can be purchased from one meal out!!

I think it would have been a great idea. The rich would have been happy to fritter it away on meals out etc. The poor could have used it to buy school uniform and other things that they need. It’s the most expensive time of the year for families and children that have been cooped up for nearly 4 months need to get out and do things so lots of families could have spend their vouchers on days out etc. It would have provided a huge morale boost and maybe helped some people’s mental health, especially children, therefore saving money in the long run.

They could have put a spending cap on each transaction, say £50, to encourage people to use their voucher on a range of places and to ‘top it up’ with their own money where the code was over £50.

That said some people on this thread seem to think the government has stolen their money from under their noses. The PPs that have said that they now can’t make the big purchase they wanted to make, well they never could, they haven’t lost out on anything.

I also thought the announcement was coming given the way Rishi Sunak built it up so 50% off on the days when you can get 50% off anyway was only ever going to be a let down😂. If you can use it in conjunction with other offers though it’ll make eating out and attractions very cheap, if only I actually lived near any 😂

When I heard it I eye rolled and thought yeah I will believe it when I see it. The money off a meal out is a joke. No interest what so ever in that.

I knew it was never going to happy anyway! It seemed like the media ran with a semi-related comment from Sunak, and just made the rest up.

I would have appreciated the £500 though! I could do with a new telly!

Anyone else think this scheme would have saved the jobs of all those boots and John Lewis employees by making people shop on the high street.

No. What happens the week after everyone has blown their £500? At the very best, the scheme might have delayed the redundancies for a short period of time but nothing more. Life has changed and business will have to change with it.

The vouchers would have done far more for the work force than the current retention scheme. You could use them over 12 months. Could have been staggered so people got at different times to spread over the next few months. The scheme in place is hideous. A thousand pound to keep an employee until January but it will cost the businesses more than that in wages before then so why would you keep staff unless you had planned too. Lots of shops are dead as people have been on lower money for months so cannot afford to shop the vouchers would get them out and after this people would of had time to get back in work to spend their own money after. Some businesses involved in weddings etc won't be making any money so can't keep staff until January because they have no income. Only companies that can afford to keep staff will benefit same as with the other schemes. If you can afford to eat out you will pay less if you can afford to buy a house and get new windows you pay less but if your struggling you foot the bill for them.

It’s nice for those who can afford to go out anyway! So really quite a typical Tory plan.

I am consoling myself with the dream thought that the £500 vouchers will be distributed later this year, to try to prop the economy up.

Maybe in time for Christmas?

Well I'll be using them. Pizza hut are going to accept them so it will be fantastic to be able to go there for a little less.

Have children and work but can still manage an evening out. PH is the only place autistic ds will eat out at, so a win all round. I'm not rich, but we do go out occasionally.

I’m always let down by meals out anyway. I think “Oooh I’ll fancy so and so tonight” and yet every single time without fail I am disappointed. I’m a shit cook but DP is brilliant and he makes better meals than any restaurant could. Less risk of food poisoning, as well.

@jasjas1973
Exactly what I thought. Everybody thought he was a crazy sorcerer daring to suggest Free Broadband for all. But it would have been very useful these last few months.

Yet here we are some half price half baked meal deal.
Who can afford to eatt out right now or worse in August.
Who really wants to after being told for months to keep away from each other
My employer though VAT was getting reduced on everything and was waiting to purchase a number of white goods cheaper. She's really disappointed but can afford to eat out. The Government must think we have a magic money tree. I feel it's a very out of touch scheme.

Everybody thought he was a crazy sorcerer daring to suggest Free Broadband for all. But it would have been very useful these last few months.

It wouldn't have happened so quickly - it needed lots of infrastructure to be improved & installed. It was planned to take several years.

I'm not fussed.

Didn't agree with the stamp duty holiday either as it will not increase supply of houses.

Yet here we are some half price half baked meal deal.
Who can afford to eat out right now or worse in August.
Who really wants to after being told for months to keep away from each other

Lots of people can and want to. Not everyone has been brought to the bones of their arse during this period, many people are actually better off (commuting costs etc).

This doesn't mean I don't have sympathy for those that have financially been affected but we can't not do anything because some people won't benefit from the scheme. You can use it down pizza hut and possibly burger king, so is actually accessible for many people.

At the root though, people are just pissed off that they are not being given free money.

Ok, this thread has been an interesting read. Those saying there are offers mon-wed anyway -
These tend to be chains rather than independents- please support independents.
You may find offers decrease as your choice of places to go decreases further with so many closing for good.
The current offers cost the business itself money, this is funded, so you might actually find you will be able to combine offers because the company gets the money back - just have to wait and see

Those moaning about its purpose -
It's designed to bolster hospitality, as is the vat decrease. The government can't afford to lose the millions of job opportunities. It's not just the initial shift to benefits for millions of people; it's that those jobs will not be available in future. Look at the former coal mining communities where unemployment is still high decades later as an example.
If millions more people are on benefits and the govt has less money coming in as there are less businesses benefits will become even tighter as there won't be any money. Then they can't fund the nhs and it could collapse.
Keeping the economy going isn't about fat cats getting richer, it's about protecting your pension, jobs for your children, and a free national health service continuing. There are problems for everyone but conflating things with no link in order to criticise isn't going to help. I really don't think people realise how serious this is for the country as a whole for years to come.

I don't think nhs staff should pay to park. It's stupid, but that has no bearing on this issue.
I think all politicians - MP / AM members should have been on 80% pay throughout this crisis. They should not have had extra to work from home, and they certainly should not be taking expenses on top of vast salaries.

There is a finite amount of money and it needs to be spent better. Ignore the soundbites and look at what this government actually do. If they did want to support business as as well as the general population they'd have brought in a basic universal income. At the moment there is the threat of people losing homes, jobs etc etc.

Reality isn't too hard to see, if you are interested in politics then try reading Private Eye - the stuff that goes on will make your eyes water.

Although reading this thread makes it seem less incredible that people vote tory as they are taken at their word and not their (in)actions

If they did want to support business as as well as the general population they'd have brought in a basic universal income.

Most adults won't have lost money (public sector workers on normal pay, pensioners, etc). UC would benefit those for no reason. Better targetted incentives are what's needed. Furlough was OK at first but should have been stopped this month for firms that "can" get back to work and continued only for those that can't i.e. nightclubs, sports stadia, etc. The small business support scheme should have been better thought out as there are too many cracks and too many areas of unfairness.

Like the miners in the 80s, we can't be forever subsiding entire industries that will never recover. I think the service industries in general will take years to recover, if ever. We can't subsidise those employees for years. We need better directed government support towards retraining, new skill learning, bringing back industries that actually make things, etc.