Chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced a plan for jobs on 8 July 2020. We set out some of the key highlights.
- Furlough will not be extended: although it seems attractive, it will be worse for the economy to extend it. So, it will end in October 2020.
- A new policy has been introduced to reward and incentivise employers who successfully bring furloughed staff back – a new Jobs Retention Bonus. As an employer, if you bring someone who was furloughed and you continuously employ them through to January 2021, the Government will pay you a £1000 bonus per employee. Employees cannot be returning for the sake of it. They must be doing “decent” work. For businesses to get this bonus, the employee must be paid at least £520 on average, in each month from November 2020 to January 2021, the equivalent of the lower earnings limit in National Insurance. Bonus will be paid for all furloughed employees.