Govt furlough extended til October

[Joan0fSarc]

Thank goodness.

[Paddingtonthebear]

Companies that are completely closed, have no one working and no income are in a very different boat to the ones that have some of their workforce furloughed and some working. That’s where the resentment is coming from , people who are still working having more work to do to cover their furloughed colleagues. Those businesses are not the same as the ones that are completely closed.

[vanillandhoney]

Anyone on furloughed should at least be looking and applying for any job they can in the hope they find something, as they have a real danger of being unemployed shortly anyway. They’d be a fool not to be at least looking

What jobs do you think are available at the moment?

[Devlesko]

This is great news. Although, we won't have any work for about a year.
We'll be back after all the staff, and when they start making a profit, which won't be for a while yet.

[Pomegranatepompom]

Is 80% required if not paying childcare costs/commuting? I’d actually gain £600 if I was furloughed per month.

[vanillandhoney]

Great so I get to work full time pay taxes all throughout this pandemic at risk in the community so 7.5 million can sit and do nothing till October

What do you propose people do when the government has forced entire industries to close for the foreseeable future?

[Kazzyhoward]

Well some industries the government ordered to close and I expect that is why this scheme is extended. They will pay for those industries all the time they order them to close. However some businesses were not told to close and have quite honestly taken the piss with this furloughed scheme. Those business will be encouraged back to work, and forced to do so if they still continue to take the piss and take advantage of the scheme.

Exactly. Continued support for those business unable to reopen. But a kick up the arse is needed for those who could open but are choosing not to, for whatever reason. Sooner or later it's going to be time for businesses to piss or get off the pot! If they're allowed to open but it's not feasible due to few customers, inappropriate premises to social distance etc., those businesses are going to have to either close down, adapt, or move.

[userxx]

@vanillandhoney Delivery drivers ? Supermarket staff? Food industry ?

[Frage]

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

Agree, Xenia.

Joan, owning property still disqualifies you from UC.

[Comefromaway]

I’d like employers to be able to offer part time hours from now. I work for a construction company. Work has really dried up but we need to maintain a service to critical places (prisons, hospitals etc) plus there will be some stuff coming in over the next few months.

But at the moment we are having to turn work down as we just can’t afford to take people off furlough for the sake of 1/2 days per week work. We would gladly pay them 2 days full pay per week if they could then get furlough the other 3 days.

Back office staff were unfurloughed as we have to start doing tenders etc but apart from one manager who deals with work that has continued throughout, all the other office staff are only doing 2/3 days work at most (from home). I normally work 35 hours per week and I’ve been doing maybe 8 (running payroll mostly) as my other tasks aren’t there/possible to do from home).

[Littleelffriend]

I'm another one sick of working extra hard while half my colleagues are sat at home doing fuck all on 80% pay.

[userxx]

What do you propose people do when the government has forced entire industries to close for the foreseeable future?

Again many businesses did not need to close. Some employers are furloughing to save themselves money, the work is there for the staff. It's wrong.

[AhGoGo]

@Pomegranatepompom

Once again, many people (especially hospitality/retail/leisure) and on or very close to minimum wage. They are receiving 80% of minimum wage and still paying the usual tax/ni/pension contributions.

[Powergower]

Anyone covering furloughed colleagues work is fucked. Dh is furloughed and is sure his employer won't want everyone back, even part time. They're happy to continue with the full timers they have, usually hand picked as the hardest workers or most experienced, and let go of the rest. Or does this mean ALL employees including those working full time now will have to move to part time hours? It does place tremendous pressure on non furloughed workers and is completely unfair.

And what happens to business who cannot offer part time work because they have no income coming in? It's not clear.

[SodOffCovid]

@Littleelffriend hear hear. DH is working full time, I'm on mat leave with the kids driving me up the wall trying to get to daddy. His colleagues are all sunbathing and posting pictures of wine

[SeperatedSwans]

vanillandhoney anything constructive to help society.

Apply for jobs that are still open, volunteer in the NHS, be trained to disinfect and clean public transport vehicles and places. Volunteer in homeless charities, man call center phones for mental health and abuse charities. Befriending services.

7.5million people currently have a lot of time on their hands.

We aren't all in this together. A proportion of society are stressed, overworked, underplayed and staring at a never ending abysmal mountain of work.

Others are sat making rainbows and sunbathing. Too scared to leave their house because they are 33 and perfectly healthy 🙄

[Kazzyhoward]

Anyone on furloughed should at least be looking and applying for any job they can in the hope they find something, as they have a real danger of being unemployed shortly anyway. They’d be a fool not to be at least looking

Well said. One of my clients is a couple who have a B&B in a seaside resort. Clearly, they're not going to have any paying customers for many months, so they both got jobs back at the end of March, one in a supermarket, the other in a local garage. They're now earning more than they did with the B&B and have basically decided to close the B&B indefinitely, for at least a couple of years, until Covid is over.

Same with businesses who've lost their core customer base, such as a local fruit & veg wholesaler who used to supply only pubs, takeaways, hotels etc- their customer base vanished overnight. Rather than sitting on their arses, they moved into domestic fruit/veg deliveries and are actually making more money doing that than they used to do wholesaling, and have taken on more staff and rented a couple of extra vans.

People really can't just sit back and wait for things to return to normal - they may never return to normal. People/businesses need to change and adapt.

[Fortyfifty]

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

Perhaps the answer to the hundreds of people needed to develop a contact tracing scheme...

[OddBoots]

This sounds like it is moving to a flexible system so those still working in companies where some have been furloughed can maybe have some of the pressure taken off as people can be brought back part time.

I'm sure there is lots of detail to follow but this sounds broadly like a good plan (and I speak as someone still working full time, as is dh and ds is still working the same part time hours he was during his degree and dd is still doing schoolwork so this doesn't benefit us at all).

[Forgone90]

Can just print more money??????

Wow ha people really need to educate themselves... Have a Google about hyper inflation in Germany and see what happened there :)

[Alsohuman]

owning property still disqualifies you from UC

No it doesn’t.

[LilacTree1]

Separated “ Let it end, covid kill me now I'm done with this horseshit. I may actually kill myself if this goes on past June.”

I hear you

[vanillandhoney]

Delivery drivers ? Supermarket staff? Food industry?

No jobs like that anywhere near me! Maybe it's different in urban areas, but here, most of those jobs came up in March and were filled within hours. Tesco recruited just after lockdown and had hundreds of applicants in just 48 hours.

Unless it's absolutely necessary, nobody is going to take on the expense of a new employee at the moment. Around here, all businesses that are still open are running with very limited existing staff and everyone else is closed and staff are furloughed.

[Kazzyhoward]

We aren't all in this together. A proportion of society are stressed, overworked, underplayed and staring at a never ending abysmal mountain of work. Others are sat making rainbows and sunbathing. Too scared to leave their house because they are 33 and perfectly healthy

Well said. This needs saying a lot more. Society is polarised between those who are working harder than ever (and not just NHS and other so-called key workers either) and those who are treating it like an extended holiday.

[vanillandhoney]

Apply for jobs that are still open, volunteer in the NHS, be trained to disinfect and clean public transport vehicles and places. Volunteer in homeless charities, man call center phones for mental health and abuse charities. Befriending services.

Okay, and where are the parents going to get childcare from? Or do we just leave small children home alone for hours so other people don't get resentful of those who are furloughed?

[Littleelffriend]

@SodOffCovid I'm honestly at the end of my tether, at home with a 4 year old, pregnant, working twice as hard as ever, partner having to work abroad. And most of my "team" are smug as fuck about doing nothing. I had to take a pay cut too!