Mr. Sunak has officially announced the Government will continue to support UK employers guaranteeing an 80% of their incomes until the end of October.
This extends the original furlough scheme to eight months since it was launched in March.
The chancellor also communicated there will be a chance for employers to get back to part-time works, starting from August.
The Government will fund the Furlough scheme at a total cost of £14 billion a month, until the end of July.
“We will need to support people back to work” Sunak said.
Streatham MPs have called on the Government to follow other European nations in limiting state support to companies that use tax avoidance schemes and preventing companies from using taxpayer money to fund excessive executive pay, dividend payouts and share buybacks.
In a letter to the Chancellor co-ordinated by Labour’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Zarah Sultana, Claudia Webbe and Apsana Begum and signed by 30 other MPs, legislators argue that any company seeking state loans must satisfy the following conditions:
- They must not be registered in tax havens.
- They must implement a moratorium on dividend payouts and share buybacks.
- They must curb excessive executive pay.
Their letter comes in the wake of polling from Survation, which revealed a majority in favour of rebalancing the UK’s post-coronavirus economy with 81% of people agreeing that companies that avoid tax should not benefit from state support.
After last week concerns, when the Chancellor of exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced the Government was working on a new plan measures that was seeing the Furlough dropped down to 60%, the Community reaction spoke out loud.
Bell Ribeiro defined the Chancellor strategy a ‘risk to the health of the UK workforce‘, and commented “The coronavirus government support has been far from universal. Lots of people have been left to fall through the gaps: part-time workers, those on zero-hours contracts, renters, new starters and freelancers in particular.
Rolling back existing job support with the infection still spreading is a big risk to the physical and economic health of UK workers.
In terms of the furlough scheme itself, I’m worried that cutting back support for people too soon will push more households into debt and poverty. For many people in Streatham who were just about managing, losing 20% of their former wage has had a real impact. Losing another 20% would tip more people over the edge. I’m also concerned about the likely job losses if we fail to extend the furlough scheme. Just last week, both large and small employers pointed out they’d have to start notifying the government of redundancies if it failed to outline what future support there is likely to be.”
HMRC said that a total of 6.3 million jobs, reaching nearly one quarter of British employees have been placed on furloughed since the scheme was launched in April – an equivalent to the government subsidising the wages of 23% of jobs.
According to the Resolution Foundation and to the announcement the Chief Executive has made, it could cost up to £12bn for each additional month of furloughed.
The furlough scheme was already been extended once, until the end of June. Spending watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that the scheme could cost £42bn over three months if the number of people furloughed reaches 8.3 million
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