Aibu to think the new Sunak scheme is woeful

[Marg33t]

New scheme is going to make lots of people lose their homes and starve.

Employers to pay 1/3rd of wages is way too high. They will cut viable jobs that will bounce back otherwise.

I'm happy to pay my taxes for all that need it to continue to receive furlough as this scheme will keep people in poverty.

Aibu to think it's a mistep?

This lays it out

Does anyone hear ‘jobs in the arts’ and just think ‘hobby’?

I’m not saying it is by the way, but we’re not taking about saving schools or hospitals or the food chain are we? Some people will have to lose their jobs unfortunately, it’s a pandemic and a shit time but it was very clear at the beginning that not every job would be able to be saved.

That graphic is helpful. Sunak would be offering maximum possible.

[quote LittlePickleHead]@Marg33t a lot of people seem to have missed this point - it's being reported in multiple places that employer pays 33% and gov tops up to 77% but this is not the case?

I must admit I am confused, it seems like the employer will pay 55% of wages for 33% of time working? What is the incentive to the employer? I may be missing the point here though![/quote]
Also baffled by this. What employer would sign up to pay an employee 55% of salary for working only 33% of their hours?

@LittlePickleHead the hope is employers will keep staff on, even though they will be effectively paying more of their salary.

I imagine the logic is the fact employers are paying 20 per cent of furlough costs now. So if you can manage that you should be able to pay 55% when employee actually working.

So employees will not get 100% full pay....

In the hope in day 6-9 months we will be back to normal. So don’t fire staff (and then have to pay redundancy, then rehire and retrain).

@TheBeatGoesOn nope. It’s 2/3 pay for non-worked hours. If you only work 33% of hours you’ll get 77% pay.

I have a feeling this will be extended yet again in March....

And it’s still going to cost us a bomb. 6 months, across the board where people want to use it (with some exceptions, large companies)

Our scheme is crap compared to Germany, and probably France, but plenty will say it's all that could be done. It isn't all that can be done, it's a political choice.

The jobs in the arts are not valued as the arts do not in general produce shareholder profits. Yes they pay ordinary families' mortgages, but the government do not care about that.

They made 2010 worse with austerity and they are making 2020 worse too.

Does anyone hear ‘jobs in the arts’ and just think ‘hobby’

Oh yes, totally frivolous job, just fuck everyone working in that industry and their families that depend on them because they're not saving lives eh?

I have not seen the announcement until this thread. I am shocked and was not expecting anything, we have already crippled the country with debt for decades.

@ChromaBook Many jobs in "the arts" are on a self-employed basis anyway so are not covered by furlough. We have several friends who are musicians, performers, events organisers and in wedding related businesses - all have their income devastated and non eligible for furlough so your anger at this scheme would not help them anyway.

I think the government cannot win, whatever they do will be howled about as being too much, too little, too soon, too late, etc and raising general taxation within reasonable limits would not touch the sides of these costs yet would still cause outrage

It is all such a mess but I honestly don't know what the solution is. Brexit is also just round the corner. Everyone I have spoken to is scared and battening down the hatches. I won't be out spending money and we are scaling back Christmas (normally frugal anyway).

we have already crippled the country with debt for decades.

Crippled how exactly?

Does anyone hear ‘jobs in the arts’ and just think ‘hobby’

Yes I'm sure they do, but not anyone I respect. Wtf is wrong with people's education that they don't see a value in the arts?

Does anyone hear ‘jobs in the arts’ and just think ‘hobby’?

Not in the slightest. I think ‘vital custodians of our culture and of all the things that promote wellbeing and elevate human life beyond mere functional existence.’

I am beyond livid at the lack of support this government is showing for the arts. Our lives and (particularly) those of our children will be hugely diminished by the losses we will now likely see in this field. Once these things are gone they will be very, very difficult to get back.

I think for some businesses for example the company I work for this is the situation:

Lots of our client work is for congresses and exhibitions and events. That’s obviously not happening so we lost a huge proportion of our income overnight. When furlough was announced it was a godsend for my bosses as it meant they could furlough us rather than make us redundant. They then spent the past 6 months frantically trying to find work and grow the other sectors of our business eg digital and copywriting. Now furlough is coming to an end they have some work but not enough to have as all back on full hours so they can only offer us 2/3 of our original hours. This is in the hope that business will grow again and get back to normal sometime next year. Now obviously they don’t want to lose any of us, we have skills, we know the company and the way it works, we all work well as a team etc etc

Now I want to keep working for this company I love it there, but I need to top up my income. I’ve been applying for all sorts of work (from delivering dominos to other admin work) and not got any replies so far as competition is tough.
This furlough means we can go back to work on reduced hours, have our income topped up a bit and hopefully in 6 months we will have put in enough hard work that the company is once again able to stand on its own 2 feet and remain fully functioning.

Plus lots of our clients are international and I suspect if we closed then the business would go to agencies overseas which isn’t good for the U.K. economy!!

But then, beyond a bit of Wagner and maybe the odd ballet, the Tories aren’t exactly renowned for their love of the arts, so hardly surprising!

There has been payout to venues so hopefully that will help

2/3 in arts are S/E anyway so it doesn’t apply

With the above in place it will come back

I would raise taxes of high earners (myself included btw) and use those taxes to provide financial support to those in the arts and other industries which apparently aren't "viable". There. Now what would you do?

But this could be years. Years.

I'd continue with what is being done now.

There has been payout to venues so hopefully that will help

Hardly, it barely covers the rent.

But this could be years. Years.

We pay higher taxes for years then.

The arts are not a dispensable industry.

Wouldnt be necessary if the economy was allowed to function.