Boris Johnson has announced the furlough scheme will be extended until December – giving car dealers and other businesses some breathing space.
The scheme was set to be replaced by the Job Support Scheme, but as a second national lockdown is set to start at 00.01 on Thursday, the PM has announced the furlough scheme will continue.
The government will extend furlough payments at 80 per cent for the duration of the new national lockdown measures in England.
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The Prime Minister said, during a Downing Street press conference, that he was sorry about the hardship that businesses have already endured this year.
He said: ‘That’s why we are going to extend the furlough system through November. The furlough scheme was a success in the spring and supported people in businesses in a critical time.
‘We will not end it, we will extend furlough until December.’
The details of the new furlough scheme are:
- Workers will receive 80 per cent of their normal salary (up to £2,500) funded by the government
- Employers will be required to pay the NI and pension contributions, mirroring the scheme that was in place in August
- The flexibility of the current furlough scheme will remain – meaning employers can continue to ask employees to work some of their hours and be furloughed for the rest
- All employers are eligible. An employee does not need to have been previously furloughed to be eligible
- An employee must have been on an employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 30th October 2020
Dealers had been worried that they would not have been able to access the new Job Support Scheme as they had seen their revenues rise since the first lockdown.
Businesses must prove they are experiencing a down turn in trade to access the cash under the JSS scheme and with many car dealers enjoying bumper months that would have been hard.
The extended furlough scheme will have some differences to March in that the measures will be ‘time-limited’, starting on November 5 and ending on December 2.
This is when the government will seek to ‘ease restrictions’ and go back into the tiered system.
Non-essential retail – including car dealers – and hospitality services will be forced to close, while schools stay open during the four-week lockdown.
It means that pubs, cafes, restaurants will shut except for takeaway and delivery services. Further details can be found in here.
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