UK Finance Minister announces job support program

 

In an attempt to help those affected by the coronavirus, the UK Finance Minister has announced a new programme. It is an emergency package of steps that will help contain unemployment and will replace the furlough scheme which will soon expire.

Called the “Job Support Scheme”, it is going to offer an automatic settlement to employees who have been working for fewer hours because of the decrease in business demands following the coronavirus. Thanks to this, people will be able to keep their jobs rather than being made redundant. This project will be put in place in November and it is going to run for six months.

Nonetheless, as expected, there are some conditions involved. For instance, employees must work for at least one-third of their normal working hours and their employer must remunerate them for that. The government will then cover the remaining parts of the payment. Additionally, this scheme is mainly for small and medium-sized businesses in the UK. Nonetheless, larger companies who have experienced a fall in turnover because of the coronavirus may also apply for it.

The UK Finance Minister, Rishi Sunak, advanced, “I can’t save every business, I can’t save every job, no Chancellor (of the Exchequer) could, but what we can and must do is deal with the real problems that businesses and employees are facing now”.


A new scheme for employees introduced © Royalty-free image


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