Furlough scheme replaced with ‘job support scheme’ to ‘top-up’ workers wages

 

Rishi Sunak's new help for business and jobs at a glace 

  • Furlough scheme will be replaced with a Job Support Scheme (JSS) to 'directly support' wages of staff working at least a third of regular hours.
  • Firms will pay workers for hours they work. For regular hours they cannot work, employer and Treasury will both pay a third of their wages, so they get two-thirds of pay for missed hours.
  • JSS open to firms who have not used furlough. 
  • Self Employment Income Support Scheme Grant (SEISS) is extended, with a lump sum to cover November to January next year
  • It will be worth 20 per cent of average monthly profits, capped at £1,875. 
  • Second grant available for February to April 2021 
  • Bounceback Loan guarantee term extended to 10 years from the current six.
  • Interest-only periods of six months and payment holidays also now available. 
  • VAT cut from 20 to 5 per cent for firms in the hospitality and tourism sectors is extended to March 2021.
  • Other firms who have deferred VAT bills under New Payment Scheme will be allowed to pay it off in 11 interest-free payments in 2021-22 financial year instead of one full payment in March 2021.
  • 'Time to Pay' self-assessment tax system extended to January 2022. 

Rishi Sunak says the 5% rate of VAT will remain in place for hospitality and tourism until the end of March 2021 and won't go back up to 20% in January.

He says today's measures are an "important evolution in our approach" to COVID-19.

The chancellor says ministers have "done much" to mitigate the trade-offs between health, the economy, and employment.

Mr Sunak says it is "dishonest" to say there is now a "risk-free solution" when it comes to balancing health and the economy, "or that we can mandate behaviour to such an extent we lose any sense of personal responsibility".

The chancellor ends by saying that when it comes to coronavirus, "it's on all of us and we must learn to live with it and live without fear."

Turning to the furlough scheme, Rishi Sunak says it was the "right policy at the time we introduced it".

The chancellor says it would be "fundamentally wrong to hold people in jobs that only exist inside the furlough".

Mr Sunak says he wants to create new opportunities and allow the economy to move forward.

He announces a new Jobs Support Scheme, which will allow employers to keep employees in a job on short hours rather than making them redundant.

It will "directly support" the wages of people in viable jobs working at least a third of their normal hours.

It will run for six months and begin in November.

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