UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak this morning announced the upcoming series of measures to protect businesses and jobs over the next 6 months.
One of the key points of this announcement was the end of the Furlough Scheme, which will finish as planned at the end of October.
Additionally, a new Job Support Scheme was announced, starting November 1st, whereby the government will support the wages of those working with reduced hours.To meet this criteria, the employees must be paid for at least one-third of normal hours, and the government and employer combined will cover two-thirds of pay.
All SMEs are eligible for this scheme, whilst larger businesses are only eligible if turnover has fallen since the beginning of lockdown. We expect more details to follow on what the level of reduced turnover should be and for how long it must have been reduced.
The scheme can be used by those who didn’t make use of the Job Retention Scheme, and for those that did, you can still claim the £1000 Job Retention bonus.
A Self-Employed Scheme working on similar terms to the Job Support Scheme will also run for the next six months.