Govt furlough extended til October

[Joan0fSarc]

Thank goodness.

Happy for those who are relying on the furlough scheme to feed their children but god, it's a huge burden on the tax payer. A particular sting for my DH who is self-employed and working his arse off during the crisis to bring money in in a dead economy.

I must admit it is far more generous that I anticipated. Though very much needed for so many sectors. I just hope they can then work out a realistic way of employers allowing certain staff back on part time (especially in hospitality areas etc) with both the employer paying some salary and the Government supporting the rest. From an admin point of view there has to be a lot of trust from HMRC. I so hope that certain employers do not leech off this when it is not necessary so the focus can be on those companies that really need the suppport.

@stoptherideiwanttogetoff the government can literally print money if they so wish. They found billions to bail out the banks, they can find the money for this.

And even if they say they can't I personally don't object to paying a few more quid a month in taxes to know that millions weren't left destitute during a pandemic.

I don't think this means the government know more etc etc

They are helping a phased return in the world of social distancing. If a workplace (school / restaurant / nursery etc) can only open if half the people are allowed in, some staff might be made redundant. This will help prevent that

I think people should hold their judgement on this until the make up of the 80% between Government and employers in clarified. As a PP said, it will be "nasty" employers who get the blame if people are made redundant.

@stoptherideiwanttogetoff We'll also have to pay for it if millions of people are unemployed and businesses fold. There is no way to escape this without a substantial impact to the economy, but safeguarding jobs and businesses is better than the alternative. I'd rather pay higher taxes so people who want to work can and businesses can operate than pay those same taxes to support millions more unemployed people who would rather be working.

So very many people are not getting anything - not furlough, not self employed grants, not universal credit (as they have savings). It seems a bit unfair that our money is being handed out hand over fist without requiring those furloughed eg to work for nothing for the state on projects or something.

@AhGoGo that's brilliant. You must be so relieved!

IF the economy starts to pick up, its only right employers pay a contribution toward salaries, they have had a wages holiday for 4 months after all.
Yeah, and no income for 4 months while still having to pay other fixed costs A lot of businesses are still struggling to pay bills even with furlough

Teddypops do you not read the news?

@joanofsarc well yes they physically can print money but obviously there are consequences to that!

From July onwards some percentage will need to be paid by the employer, like match funding almost.

This is right and fair. It's better than an abrupt end to the scheme, but obviously 80% wasn't going to last forever.

Im surprised too (but pleased for people as well. )
My first thoughts were things are worse than we thought. I'd rather they were honest with us all, but I suppose they have their reasons. The debts will be eye watering and austerity mark two is around the corner. It's so sad just as things were looking up a bit too for the economy and the chancellor was starting to throw some more money to the nhs ( pre the Coronavirus )

where is all the money coming from..you do realise we will have to pay it back in taxes eventually

Absolutely, but without this scheme you’ll just cause redundancies and push people on universal credits and that will be cost as well. Right now there is no rent support etc, people are receiving a wage. A lot of people are on minimum wage on this furlough scheme. This furlough pays the rents and bills. Without it universal credit (hopefully) would. In London universal credit hardly covers private rents if at all, so landlords wouldn’t get rents paid and then where are we?

It’s all so delicate. Many people live pay check to pay check.

Do you know whether he's mentioned self-employed workers? I can't see any mention of it in the article.

Boris telling people to go to work if they can and Rishi extending their furlough scheme until October? Doesn't exactly I still any confidence in the Government, which is what people need right now. Do they even talk to each other?

I'm confused. I thought the whole point of getting children back to school is June is to enable people to go to work?

@Xenia UC has removed almost all conditionality, including savings.

And it's the money of those currently furloughed, too, given they've paid taxes and will do again when they go back to the jobs the scheme has protected. They are absolutely entitled to it.

@HollowTalk No, nothing about the SE. Martin Lewis has just posted a video on the topic saying that he's going to try get a question to him about that, but thinks he might reveal SE info later this week.

the government can literally print money if they so wish. They found billions to bail out the banks, they can find the money for this.

Fuck my life.

hollow he referenced them in terms of how the UK has supported its workers but didn't mention the scheme being extended or comment on it (that I saw)

Wow! this makes me wonder whether the government know alot more than they are letting on!! are we really fucked until then?

Surely it's common sense that we're going to be nowhere near normal by Autumn? Things are going to be getting back to "normal" at a snail's pace, probably well into 2021. The hospitality/tourism/sport/festivals industries are going to be the last to return to normal, probably not until everyone is vaccinated. Until then, social distancing will be the norm. Even with the businesses, schools, etc allowed to reopen, they'll still be severely limited by social distancing. It's going to be a very long drag back to normality, with very small incremental changes every few weeks.

As a nation we were already going to be in debt forever. Most countries in the world have debt. There are only a handful who dont. The money is there. They had billions for the banks. They have billions for trident and HS2 both of which could be scrapped. People are worried because of their experiences with austerity which is a completely ideological concept and it's been proven not to work.

the government can literally print money if they so wish. They found billions to bail out the banks, they can find the money for this.

Come back to us when you've actually researched the consequences of printing money. How about risk of inflation, risk of adverse exchange rates, risk of high interest rates, worsening of balance of payments deficit, paying back huge amounts of debt interest for generations to come.

drama there are some industries which can't go back to work though. Festivals, some hospitality etc. The scheme won't change until July, by which point they've outlined that they hope some hospitality etc will be back.

As they will have to operate with social distancing they may not need all staff all the time, so the changes from July to the scheme will help employers let all their staff work part time rather than furlough half.