The End of Furlough and the Job Support Scheme

With the recent announcement from Boris regarding further lockdown measures for another 6 months over winter, how will it affect employers and employees with the new changes moving forward? Here’s a brief summary to help.

Summary of changes

• Current Furlough scheme will end as planned on 31st October 2020
• The new Jobs Support Scheme (6 months from November – April 2020) will come into play which involves the government supporting the wages of people in work, giving employers the option to keep people in work on shorter hours, rather than make them redundant.
• The scheme is open to all employees, even if they were not previously furloughed.
• Applies to all small and medium organisations and can apply to big companies who prove turnover has fallen

Other initiatives

• The self employed grant is being extended on similar terms and conditions to the new Job Support Scheme.
• £1,000 for every furloughed employee kept on until at least the end of January
• £1,500 for every out-of-work 16-24 year old given a ”high quality” six month work placement
• £2,000 for every under-25 apprentice taken on until the end of January, or £1,500 for over 25s
• To continue supporting over 150,000 businesses and protect 2.4 million jobs, the Government has extended the 15% VAT cut for the tourism and hospitality sectors to the end of March next year.
• The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme extension will support viable traders who are facing reduced demand over the winter months, covering 20 per cent of average monthly trading profits via a government grant.