To SCREAM from the rooftops that furlough needs to be extended at least 6 more months

[Marg33t]

Furlough saves jobs and saves people's health. Why is the extension not announced today?

People are losing their jobs at a rapid rate as it's near to the 30-45 days for consultations for redundancies. It needs to be extended or more people will lose their jobs. Other counties are running it until next year and it makes me feel sick that we aren't protecting and saving jobs!

@unmarkedbythat

But if nothing else, the WFH drive is going to transform public transport (what's left of it) out of all recognition. Which is going to be a headache if you've been relying on buses to shuttle your NMW employees into your sweatshops and there are no buses anymore.

Maybe in London, highly unlikely elsewhere.

Again, the "can't happen here" mindset.

I wonder what will have to happen before people accept things have changed ?

Remember, it's a British article of faith that the market decides and that subsidies are the work of the devil incarnate - just look how hostile so many people are to furlough.

Your bus company can't make money ? Then it deserves to fold. Bad luck bussies. Should have bought a bank instead.

Can see Rishi's plan causing a lot of bitterness as well.
People made redundant shortly before his announcement such as myself.
People working full-time hours in retail and health care knowing their friend working in a different sector will be doing minimal hours but earning full wage. For up to a year. Unlike themselves, working long hours and not getting any top up from the government.

People working full-time hours in retail and health care knowing their friend working in a different sector will be doing minimal hours but earning full wage. For up to a year. Unlike themselves, working long hours and not getting any top up from the government I agree. Carers getting paid so little for all the responsibility we have is awful. Struggling to make ends meet every single month but hearing people whinging about having to return to work like 6 months doing fuck all wasn't enough.

I've had at least 10 parents at drop off moaning about being made to go back to work and asking how I feel about going back even though they know I work in care. It's so hard not to say "if you don't want to go back you can always quit.

It needs to be done on a case by case basis. For example events industry - conferences and congresses and exhibtions and festivals and concerts and large weddings and banquets and balls etc. Those things aren’t going to happen for at least another year. They take months to plan no-one is going to start the ball rolling and invest huge amounts of money into something that probably won’t happen. Lots of large halls are still taken over by nightingale hospitals (here and all over the world)
I would love to go back to work but the work just isn’t there. I’ve applied for other stuff but am not hearing back, I assume because there’s tonnes of other people also applying!

@TheBeatGoesOn

So basically, going to work part time and having your hours topped up? So pretty much like furlough part 2

That being the case, then those on furlough and those that worked throughout should go part time and have wages topped up. Then those of us that had to do extra work while others did none can get a break.

However we now a two tier society in many ways.

Those furloughed and those not furloughed.

Those not working getting government support at UC levels and using food banks and others not working getting much, much more financial support to, in most cases but not all, to be very comfortable indeed. This cannot be right or acceptable and why isn't the Labour party pushing this point. No, instead they are pushing furlough to continue with 'pay' being at 80%!
.

You do realise that a lot of people still technically on furlough can have started back at work part time and, if on reduced hours due to Covid, the furlough tops up to their average wage pre lockdown?

The scheme is set to come into place on the 1st November .
So what we will have is people like carers working full time working every hour for their pay. Then you will have someone who works at a restaurant who will do a few hours but be on 80% or even full pay. How is that fair?

I don't remember the country being in uproar when mining was decimated in the North East and Wales nor with the decline of manufacturing in the Midlands, the North and Wales.
Unfortunately some sectors are no linger sustainable at the moment and that is the reality.

Agree with you Getting Grumpier.
I can understand it being for a short time for affected industries but they are saying a year or more. How is that fair?

Some sectors are no longer sustainable at the moment - key phrase there. The country was bloody quick enough to book out all the cafes and restaurants during EOHO weren’t they? Now you’re telling people that their jobs will never be there, ever again?

This is the overriding problem with Britain - fuck the lower quarter of society, how dare people be in low paid jobs, how terrible that some people need supporting for a short period of time.

The attitude of some of the posters honestly makes me want to weep for the world I’m raising my son in.

Re Buses
My exH works for a very big Edinburgh bus co.
He was furloughed (not his choice) and still is.
On 80% pay, not allowed to take on other work or volunteer.
Normally they are short of drivers (high turnover due to fairly hard work for definately poor pay) and there will have been some retirements (and deaths) over lockdown but he is worried there won't be a job to return to. I am rural Scotland, and there are very few buses and those that are running are empty. Tough luck if you need to travel to work (everybody does as jobs and housing are very spread out)

@AlohaMolly

Some sectors are no longer sustainable at the moment - key phrase there. The country was bloody quick enough to book out all the cafes and restaurants during EOHO weren’t they? Now you’re telling people that their jobs will never be there, ever again?

This is the overriding problem with Britain - fuck the lower quarter of society, how dare people be in low paid jobs, how terrible that some people need supporting for a short period of time.

The attitude of some of the posters honestly makes me want to weep for the world I’m raising my son in.

@AlohaMolly

This, a thousand times this.
I can see both sides of the argument but the main thing I see is our society becoming ever more divided and those in power becoming ever more powerful. We are going backwards, so quickly :(

Yes 52andblue it’s pretty scary.

There will have been some people and companies that abused furlough and they should be investigated and made to pay it back.

There will be some places that furloughed their staff to begin with and then realised that, actually, they were allowed to operate. Remember the ‘mixed’ or unclear messaging at the beginning when nearly all shops closed and then realised they didn’t actually have to? B&Q made HUGE sales after a few weeks of no trading at all, so will have obviously unfurloughed their staff.

Furlough payments are still taxable, so anyone with payments that take them above the tax threshold will be paying tax.

People on furlough helped keep the economy afloat throughout lockdown, just like you higher beings who would never deign to accept government help in a crisis. I certainly spent my money in gasps supermarkets to shock horror feed my child. I also spent money in my local small businesses, online, on non essential items

Bar staff who would normally work until 1/2 in the morning will lose hours from their contracted wages because of a government mandate. A top up of their wages can mean the difference between heating or none, feeding their child or not.

I work hard at my job, I enjoy it, Dp worked incredibly hard to build a successful business. Bar/serving staff work hard at their jobs. Just because people work in an industry affected by Covid doesn’t mean they don’t work

...hard or that their industry is now somehow obsolete.

@AlohaMolly 👏👏👏👏

The logic of so many posters on here seems to be:

‘it pisses me off to think of someone getting paid and being forced to stay at home, therefore it should be scrapped’

and that’s it. No consideration of the wider pros and cons or what the broader long-term consequences might be of any particular course of action.

Just – why should you get something I don’t.

@NameChange9824

I think a lot of smug key workers are going to be very sad when they realise just how many industries are basically going to be ashes by the end of this. Theatres, concerts and cultural spaces are on the verge of total collapse. Charities like Marie Curie and Macmillan are about to have mass redundancies and that'll get worse, and will affect the services they can offer. Putting everyone on UC will lead to a massive drop in spending and that would impact on things like the shops key workers use (who may go under). Just because you haven't been in an industry which had to stop due to lockdown doesn't mean you won't be affected. Furlough was the only thing holding up a lot of industries and it going is going to be far more painful for everyone than I think we realize.

Surely the government needs to look at helping charities. I work in a role funded by Macmillan and even though we are safe until next year I dread to think of the future. This at a time when people affected by cancer need increasing support.

@Weave

The logic of so many posters on here seems to be:

‘it pisses me off to think of someone getting paid and being forced to stay at home, therefore it should be scrapped’

and that’s it. No consideration of the wider pros and cons or what the broader long-term consequences might be of any particular course of action.

Just – why should you get something I don’t.

Yup, and the Government encouraged that thinking, re benefits, refugees, TV licences, and even pensions.

So the Tories are biting themselves on their bums now.

The answer is a new version of 'tax credits' that is actually a universal basic income.

You wouldn't think anyone has lost a job round by me with the amount people are spending on houses which are selling like hot cakes at all time record highs, even first time buyer houses going for an extra 100k than they were 5 years ago, it's crazy

I'm not against furlough but where is the money going to come from? It can't go on for a year because we can't afford it.
It's sad but I can't see that companies are going to suddenly bounce back next year, so then what?
Do we pay for another year? There are going to be a lot of people out of work but we can't pay indefinitely.

If the furlough scheme ends & hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost then they will all be claiming benefits, doesn't matter what you call it but it all comes out of the pot. The more businesses that go bust, the fewer jobs there will be for everyone who is out of work. It would be better to bring in a 4 day working week to spread the wealth about a bit, also bring the retirement age back down to 65 for men & 60 for women, it would increase the amount of jobs that are available. Bringing out other kinds of education & training for kids after A levels, not all kids want to go to university, something that includes both skills that would make young people more employable & include some kind of work in the community so that they are giving back at the same time, maybe helping out in schools, work with old people, volunteering in charity shops, working to improve local areas, parks, playgrounds, housing estates, helping towards making social housing ready to live in. Let parents keep child benefit, tax credits & child elements of benefits until age 21, pay a bursary to make learning worthwhile.

@ChaChaCha2012

Tax payers have paid for PPE contracts that produced nothing, testing and tracing that is ineffectual, an app that never even materialised, the utter shitshow that is Brexit, and HS2 which has zero economic benefit. If people are saying we can't afford furlough, I trust they're up in arms about the aforementioned?

This.

As I said, of course I want people to keep their jobs. I just find it gutting when I was recently made redundant and have chronic health issues, yet this scheme is now in place which provides support for workers for a year, possibly more. So they work part time but get full time hours. Just wish I could be as fortunate.

On another note, how are aviation and theatre going to benefit from this as they are barely operating, if at all? They can't give workers 50% of their work as the work is not there.

full time pay I meant.

I'm not against furlough but where is the money going to come from? It can't go on for a year because we can't afford it.

I wish people would stop with this bollocks. I'll believe there is no money when we are selling Trident for scrap, and Buck House has a for sale sign outside. If we can spunk (I will say it again) £110 billion on Brexit - so far then we can damn well find enough money to stop people from starving on the streets.