The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Shi Sunak, left 10 Downing Street after attending a Cabinet meeting on February 14, 2020.
Barcraft Media
LONDON – The UK’s finance minister announced on Thursday that the country’s furlough scheme, which subsidizes the wages of workers unable to work due to the coronavirus epidemic, would be extended until March 2021.
“Economic recovery has slowed and economic risks have turned to losses,” Chancellor Sun Sunak told House Commons by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“Given this significant uncertainty, the deteriorating economic background and the need to provide security to people and businesses during the winter, I believe it is appropriate to move forward. So we can announce today that the Furlo plan will not be extended for a month Will come, ”he said.
He said the policy would be reviewed in January, to see if the economic situation was improving as employers were asked to make more contributions to their employees.
It was already announced last week that the furlough scheme, or “jobs retention scheme”, as it is formally known, would be expanded to cover the four-week lockdown that began in England on Thursday morning.
The plan sees the UK government work up to 80% of people’s wages up to 2,500 dollars a month, not working hours. Employers will have to pay for their employees’ pension contributions and national insurance (which pays for parts of the UK’s welfare state, such as the National Health Service).
The program was launched during the first lockdown, which began in March, and is designed to prevent workers from being made redundant during an epidemic. It has been praised for its effectiveness in this regard.
The program is mainly used by people in the leisure and hospitality industry, although the sector has been forced to close during the lockdown.
Gino, leisure centers, restaurants, bars and pubs and all non-essential businesses have now been asked to stop the second wave of coronavirus infection in England for the second time, by 2 December.
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