Germany extending furlough to 24 months!

[latticechaos]

Saw that Germany was planning to extend their furlough scheme to 24 months because they don't expect the crisis to ease any time soon and they want to help citizens.

Made me feel pretty really, UK is going to see a sackload of job losses over the next few months.

I always felt the French plan for part time furlough was better than our scheme. UK scheme was very generous short term but has a hard ending.

The problem is we all need to spend and be economically active but we are all nervous so reducing our spending plus not getting as much chance to spend because of restrictions.

The best we can do is spend what money we can spare.

It's not easy to spend when you know the recession will worsen and there'll be no government help for anyone!

German Tax rates are higher than ours see photo
and they have far, far less dependency on the service sector within their economy as opposed to ours

This.

@mrshoho

**German Tax rates are higher than ours see photo and they have far, far less dependency on the service sector within their economy as opposed to ours**

This.

It feels like we are on a real downward spiral, and the job losses this time are going to accelerate that.

Been way to expensive already, our kids’ kids will be paying for furlough as is

@2kool4skool

Been way to expensive already, our kids’ kids will be paying for furlough as is

But won't they pay for a wrecked economy too? I just feel the UK is again going down the wrong path, we did badly after 2010 and I feel sad about going through that again.

Pretty dire job losses in retail, leisure and travel are inevitable. It is going to be tough. But we are expecting the construction and house building sector to explode. Can we restart our manufacturing? Are we going to move further away from China? One certainty is higher taxes.

Tax is not the only difference , German workers have to pay significantly more in equivalent terms to our NI and they can only claim certain benefits if they have contributed. Not comparable really at a basic level

Those higher taxes fund more generous benefits in general. Germany is paying a one off €300 per child „Corona“ child benefit in September. On top of the €200 per child per month which families already receive - not means tested - until their DC complete their education at university (still free to all) or apprenticeship. Statutory sick pay is 70% of your salary, up to €105 per day. Germany is still an industrial powerhouse and the government are trying to ensure that it remains so on the other side of the pandemic.

@JE17

Those higher taxes fund more generous benefits in general. Germany is paying a one off €300 per child „Corona“ child benefit in September. On top of the €200 per child per month which families already receive - not means tested - until their DC complete their education at university (still free to all) or apprenticeship. Statutory sick pay is 70% of your salary, up to €105 per day. Germany is still an industrial powerhouse and the government are trying to ensure that it remains so on the other side of the pandemic.

The UK could be like this! That's what I never understand. --Why can't we just copy them?--

Must be.nice to be an industrial powerhouse!

In Germany the taxes largely go back to the tax payer. Better pensions, sick pay etc. Here not so much. More likely to go to friends and donors of the government.

Yes furloughing helped a lot of people but in some cases has delayed the inevitable. If so many business are all ready in trouble how is further furloughing going to help. People need to know where they stand to enable them to get on with their lives.

@latticechaos

I'm worried we are making the same mistake as 2010, but bigger this time.

If you're referring to the credit crunch, you're right to be worried. Britain never recovered from the recession it caused. We were already approaching bankruptcy. What's coming is going to be so much worse. The emergency powers the government will continue to give itself aren't to protect the people from the virus. They are to protect the state from the people when the money runs out.

@Pixxie7

Yes furloughing helped a lot of people but in some cases has delayed the inevitable. If so many business are all ready in trouble how is further furloughing going to help. People need to know where they stand to enable them to get on with their lives.

The argument in Germany appears to be that it is a covid recession, so once (if???) Covid crisis is passed then the country can recover.

They want to keep people spending and not lose the companies I guess.

You can’t follow what the Germans do or be seen to be following what the Germans do over here in the U.K. as so many of the older generation haven’t forgotten the war and hatred for the Germans is very strong in some people. Part of the Brexit narrative was we are ruled by the Germans via Brussels and any attempts to follow anything Germany does will create outrage amongst some.

@FoolsAssassin
am sure it will be of great comfort to those who lose their jobs that it is good old fashioned British unemployment we are pursuing

My Mother was German, I am an almost painfully stereotyped middle class Brit so people don’t realise. When I was a child people knew about my Mum and I had to put up with a lot of crap.

The anti German rhetoric has ramped up again as the last few years to the extent at times I have been unsure whether I could stay here as took me back to some miserable times in my childhood. My friend thought I was exaggerating until her MIl started over Sunday lunch and it got heated as Friend’s DD called her out on it.

The suggestion that we do anything similar to the Germans is like a red rag toma bill to some.

@FoolsAssassin
Very sorry to hear this happened to you when young, and the more recent experiences. Makes me to hear.

The war ended 75 years ago. You can't compare the people now to the people back then. They're not the same people and it's not fair.

It's a form of racism to be nasty about germans just because of what hapoened in history, the UK hasn't exactly been a saint either....

Totally agree with you all. I had assumed as time went on things would improve. It did for a bit but the Brexit arguments inflamed it again and sadly it’s alive and well amongst some who clearly had just kept it hidden but felt it had become acceptable to voice again.

That’s why I think any suggestion we do anything to copy them in any way will go down like a lead balloon now.

And sadly it has been passed down the generations, DD learned quickly to keep her mouth shut at school about the fact her Grandmother was German.

@FoolsAssassin I am German and never felt more hated than any other immigrant in this country although most people seem too polite to say what they actually think - that's a British stereotype for you (people on here are very honest though). Is it really that bad? There is loads living in London. How old are you? If you were a child in the 50s/60s then that's understandable, however your response is completely fuelled by how you felt rather than a logical response in my opinion. Do you think the people who lose their jobs, their homes will actually resent the government for following Germany and extend the furlough scheme? No, they'll be grateful although I don't think this will happen anyway.

I am sorry you had to go through this though, it sounds as though this has been very traumatic and maybe you should actually seek professional help to talk about this? It seems to sit deep and I mean this in the nicest way possible.

In general though, the country's social system is a lot more robust and always have been. You receive more benefits for any aspect of your life and it just seems to function better. This is just personal experience. I went to university here and met my husband and then stayed but still hoping that one day, we'll move back especially for my children's sake.

I've always felt like that the government does nothing for you here but I also felt like that some companies have actually abused the scheme which is really sad.

I don’t think we should extend furlough for much longer, doing so is based on the assumption that the world will return to the same sort of normality as before which I just don’t think is the case.

I’d like to see a more innovative approach, including increasing temporarily increasing working age benefits and reallocating some of that furlough budget to allowing people to retrain in new skills that would better suit the future, interest free loans to new businesses as well as existing etc. We have several sectors where there is a real shortage of workers into which people have lots of transferrable skills, teaching is one. Sure some new businesses won’t work, but that’s no different to throwing money at businesses who have little ability or intention to fully reopen anyway.