To think that financially, Covid hasn't changed much for many people.

[blueblueblue101]

I keep hearing that we are in a recession that will be the longest and deepest in history. Yet when I look around, no one seems to be financially hit. Plenty of people going out for their meal out to help out. People still able to afford holidays. No one around me has been made redundant and no one I know seems to be remotely concerned about what the future holds in regards to finances Meanwhile, I am eaten up with worry that we'll lose our jobs our home etc.

One of my close friends phoned me in floods of tears last week as they’re going to have to sell their house. Her DH has been made redundant and she works in the beauty industry and was only allowed to start working again last week. They can’t pay their mortgage.
I have friends in the arts industry who have been made redundant.
The nearby airport is a huge employer in my village... many redundancies made there.
Also live near a very large, famous engineering company which is making 1000’s of redundancies.
DH’s company has announced 2000 redundancies will be made in September.

We will all have to pay more to pay for the furlough scheme and increase in unemployment. Redundancies are being announced now businesses have realised the impact on their sales. Retail is being hard hit and that means landlords have empty properties, many pension schemes are invested in properties and there will be less or no dividends and a drop in share value. Travel ie rail, coach, buses has tailed off, small businesses that feed off these will close. If you're renting in the private sector and aren't able to pay rent then this will lead to evictions once the government ban is lifted. LL may be unable to pay mortgages on the properties or if it's a pension will suffer loss of income.

The full financial longterm impact is just beginning and it could be a long climb back to pre-covid days.

I work in HR so speak to a lot of recruiters. One global company is making 8,000 redundancies, I don’t know how many of those are in the U.K. A lot of recruiters are furloughed and many won’t have a job to go back to, unless the job market dramatically picks up in the next month. Recruitment is a big industry in the U.K.

I know people in the events and film / tv industries, those sectors have been decimated.

It's the sort of thing we'll hear when the next general election comes round. "Our highly damaging lockdown didn't have much adverse effect at all, it was the right thing to do, you can trust us with a future plandemic, unemployment is lower than it has ever been." I can see Dominic Cummings writing Boris's script already (that's if the party doesn't plan to oust him when things are quiet enough).

I don't know anyone who knows they had covid, yet alot of people I know have been hit financially.

Does that mean I can assume Covid hasn't hit many people?

Well, 1/8 people are still on furlough, around 100,000 retail jobs have gone, who knows how many travel, leisure and hospitality jobs

When the bubble bursts it’s going to be horrific

I think it partly depends on where you live as to seeing how hard it's hitting. Where I live there aren't a lot of jobs in the arts, travel, tourism etc, but lots of public service jobs which have often left people better off due to saving on travel etc.

I think the recruitment sector being so badly hit is a good indicator of the state of the jobs market.

My family member , my best friend and another friend have all been made redundant. You are very naive op.

Sadly, I know many people who have lost their jobs, are seeing their Incomes reduced or are finding things financially challenging because of COVID. I e seen most of my work as a freelance dry up.

Shops all over the place have closed, retail chains are cutting store numbers and unemployment is up.

So actually, things have changed a lot, for a lot of people. Just because you are lucky enough not to be experiencing it directly doesn’t it isn’t happening.

I know several people who have either lost hours or their jobs completely.
For example one has lost 10 hours a week off his minimum wage job with further cuts likely and another who now earns in a week driving a Tesco delivery van what he used to earn in a day self employed. But he is still grateful to be earning anything.
Until the middle class salaried workers start seeing their jobs disappear as furlong ends we will still have people thinking like the op.

Well I don't know anyone who has had Covid but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Maybe think before you post OP.

Lucky you, OP

I've been made redundant, my partner's company is up for sale. My mother's, sisters and brothers work hours have all been reduced.
It's definitely happening.

Well I’ve had to swap my diamond shoes for plain gold ones so I’m definitely feeling the pain OP.

Early days, OP. By the way, for those saying many people are saving large amounts of money from W@H, have you thought about the effects of those changes in consumption and the withdrawal of demand or do you think this will have no effect?

i know 2 people in music industry who have obviously no work-another who has had to take a delivery job-maybe all your friends are in safe industries

I think the shit just hasn't truly hit the fan for a lot of people yet. Benefits have been temporarily increased, there has been the furlough scheme, evictions were temporarily stopped. A lot of people will have been able to weather the storm through being buffered by the government schemes, savings, credit, etc. This will run out. I can see that the really effects will be felt anywhere from 6 months to 10 years down the line, as with the people effected by other recessions.

I know families who lost a lot of money in 2007/8 through property and this won't impact them fully until retirement. Unless they have also been badly effected by covid, which might speed that up. As usual recessions effect the most financially precarious first but they effect everybody, ultimately. People who think they are not effected are wrong, indirectly they will be. And of course, a lot of people actually do well out of a recession.

*So you've read about mass redundancies, evictions, business closures, joblessness, increase in benefit claimants, increase in food bank demand etc, ignored all of that, looked out your window and thought "meh, looks about the same."

You're not very bright, are you OP?*
....this.....you just happen to live in a little bubble OP.

All the Furlough payments have done is to give people a false hope that their jobs will survive
Which makes you wonder if the huge cost to the taxpayer was really worth it. Furlough for a job that will resume after lockdown, yes, furlough to delay the inevitable seems like a very expensive mistake. I think companies should be made to repay it if they fire people once it ends (except if they can prove it was unforseen, which I imagine is a very small minority of cases)

So the limited number of people known to the OP, likely middle class and we'll off, their fine so there's no problem?

Hmm.

Well where inline a massive employer has closed, people lost jobs, foodbank use has gone up triple fold. I lost my job in march, UC claiming now and living on less than a lot of people spend on face creams and shoes.

But yeah, it's not real, all those poor fuckers that are homeless and starving and reliant on welfare are fake news...

There will be people not affected financially. That is a fact. That does not mean the OP thinks that no one is or won’t be in the future, but the use of the word many was perhaps unfortunate.

Several families I know are better off - no travel costs and less going out had equated to a healthier bank balance. No nursery available. Hundreds saved a month. I’m sure those are a smaller percentage though sadly, but it doesn’t make it not true.

OP are you aware that the ban on evictions for renters is due to be lifted this week? Shelter estimates that 227,000 private renters have fallen into arrears and could lose their homes. Just because you don't know any of these poor people doesn't mean they don't exist.

@DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult

Ahhh ignorance is bliss.

+ 1.

Clearly YOU aren't affected OP. All those stories of mass unemployment and high street catastrophes weren't just invented you know .

I think it's yet to hit. The government payouts for self employed are happening this month but after that and furlough have finished I don't know if many businesses will keep afloat. I really hope that not too many people will be affected but I think it's too early to tell.