To think they MUST extend furlough in line with other European Countries

[LaurieFairyCake]

Most of the centrist countries are doing 12-24 months.

If they don't do it here for those industries that are hugely affected then we're looking at MASS unemployment, repossessions, huge housing benefit claims...

Bump

i think they will wait until the last possible minute before making the decision to extend or not

They’ll end furlough, everyone will kick up a stink, Boris will do his 50th u-turn in the space of a few months and people will be happy.

I hope so, but feel very sorry for those who have been made redundant due to the current status of furlough ending.
It is difficult as there are many big employers and small ones who have and are making redundancies but if furlough was in line with other countries like Germany those Jobs may have been secure.

I hope so. I was on furlough from March until the beginning of August. Without the scheme I'd have lost my job, no doubt. Luckily for me business has done a U-turn and picked up incredibly at my workplace. Others won't be so lucky.

No

Business has to be given a chance to pick up on its own.

Companies like retailers who were going to make redundancies anyway due to the crisis on the high street which has been decades in the making and nothing to do with Covid would abuse it

There isn't any reason for anyone to be remaining on furlough in the next couple of months once stadiums/arts venues reopen

I had a quick google and couldn’t see what countries are having government schemes for 24 months.

We have already racked up trillions of debt and fraud has been widespread. It has to end in October.

No. It should already have ended. It was a mistake to carry it on so long.

No. It's a fake and costly remedy, it should have ended as soon as the lockdown ended.

No we can't afford it.

I think they should extend it for businesses who can’t open. Lots of businesses are making lots of money at the moment but using the furlough scheme to maximise shareholder/owner profits. DH keeps getting emails saying the business is making record profits but refuses to say when or if the 50% of staff on furlough are coming back. I’m hoping the chancellor is going to whack up corporation tax for any high earning business who have been using government funds to pay their staff rather than shareholder profits.

I haven't seen any comparison of different furlough schemes, I suspect they differ substantially across different countries. Have you seen an article that explains the different approaches?

There is no end date to this pandemic and so it’s perfectly reasonable that they can’t continue furlough indefinitely.

Maybe for sectors which cannot reopen, such as eg nightclubs.

But otherwise not. There are plenty of organisations that used furlough and should not have done, as they were still open normally. They just used taxpayers' money to subsidise their operations.

I wouldn't be so sure that theatres abd stadiums are going to be allowed to reopen if cases keep rising.

No, as sad as it is (and I feel awful for anyone facing redundancy), we cannot have zombie companies surviving purely on Govt. (taxpayer) support. Furlough should only be brought back (in my view) in the event of another large elongated lockdown or industry-specific lockdown I.e. of pubs are closed countrywide support the sector, but not Furlough for airline staff due to a reduction in aviation Travel

i think it should continue for certain sectors absolutely. Anything that cant open for instance - otherwise there will be nothing left to open by the time it's actually allowed.

@Florencex Germany is extending theirs until the end of 2021. I'm not sure if it will just be for specific industries or what.

I suspect if they wait until the last minute to extend furlough then they won’t have to cover as many people as the redundancies will already have happened. But then they can ‘look good’ by extending furlough while it also costs a bit less to do so.

@Florencex

I had a quick google and couldn’t see what countries are having government schemes for 24 months.

We have already racked up trillions of debt and fraud has been widespread. It has to end in October.

We own a nightclub have done for 12 years! We can’t open now and there’s no sign of us opening in the foreseeable. Do we lose everything we have worked for in the last 12 years then?

Furlough should be and needs to be extended for businesses that are unable to operate.

No too much.

Some arts sectors have received funding now too

No. We can't afford it and it's been open to abuse.

No. The system isn't tight enough.

I'm kind of pissed off, here in Germany, working long shifts and paying 46% of my income in tax (not 46% of earnings over a certain amount, but 46% of my entire pay packet) to fund people with deskjobs to receive up to 2900 € per month, which is considerably more than I'm left with, for doing nothing. I think they should be made redundant and paid redundancy pay by their employers and go onto unemployment benefits, which are vastly more generous here than in the UK, while they look for something else.
My employer still can't find enough prospective employees and does have roles for career changers - nobody's applying, why would they - they would if furlogh ended and redundancies were made.

Unpopular, I know. I don't care, I've not long got home from a night shift which didn't end til 10am.

Yes for businesses still unable to open.