(Title Image: The Guardian)
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP, unveiled new plans to support the economy during the second wave of Covid-19.
The UK Government’s furlough scheme will end as planned during October 2020, but will be replaced by a new scheme to subsidise what is described as “viable jobs”.
Under the scheme, employers will be expected to pay employees for any time worked (based on an assumption that working hours will be cut) as well as a third of unworked hours within their contracted hours.
The UK Government will then top this up by paying an additional third of unworked hours. The remaining third of unworked hours will go unpaid.
Assistance for the self-employed will also continue but on less generous terms as compared to schemes earlier in the pandemic.
The new schemes start on 1st November 2020 and will run for six months.
As a result of the pandemic and planned autumn budget has been scrapped, being replaced by a spending review.
Finance Minister, Rebecca Evans (Lab, Gower) said: “Whilst the eleventh-hour measures announced by the Chancellor today prevents the worst consequences of a furlough cliff edge, more needs to be done to help unemployed workers find new jobs and incentivise employers to hire new workers. For some workers, this announcement is simply too late.”
The Welsh Government also criticised the lack of targeted support for sectors of the economy, such as the aerospace and steel industries.
