Rishi Sunak unveils emergency jobs scheme

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The government and firms will continue to top up wages of workers who have not been able to return to the workplace full time due to the coronavirus



The Jobs Support Scheme, which will replace the furlough scheme, will see workers get three quarters of their normal salaries for six months.

It aims to stop mass job cuts after the government introduced new measures to tackle a rise in coronavirus cases.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said it was part of a wider "winter economy plan".

Nearly three million workers - or 12% of the UK's workforce - are currently on partial or full furlough leave, according to official figures. The current furlough scheme ends on 31 October.

Mr Sunak said the new scheme would "support only viable jobs" as opposed to jobs that only exist because the government is continuing to subsidise the wages.

The government's contribution to workers' pay will fall sharply compared with the furlough scheme. Under furlough, it initially paid 80% of a monthly wage up to £2,500 - under the new scheme this will drop to 22%.

"The primary goal of our economic policy remains unchanged - to support people's jobs - but the way we achieve that must evolve," Mr Sunak said.

"I cannot save every business, I cannot save every job."

The new scheme begins on 1 November and will cost the government an estimated £300m a month. Companies who use it can also still claim the Job Retention Bonus, where the government pays £1,000 for every furloughed employee who comes back to work until at least the end of January.

Mr Sunak said a similar scheme for the self-employed would be available.

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Some people on furlough are avoiding a return to work because it has been "great" for them, former business secretary Dame Andrea Leadsom has said



She said there were some who did not want to go back because they have a garden, have "great vegetables growing" and have been able to go walking.

But the Conservative MP said there was also a mental health issue about some people fearful of going back.

The furlough scheme has helped pay millions of wages during the pandemic.

A total of 11.5 million jobs have been supported by the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and there were 3.4 million people on furlough as of 30 April, according to the latest statistics.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Any Questions, Dame Andrea said: "For some people they're just terrified, so it's like, 'I've been on furlough for so long I really can't quite face going back to the office' and employers are rightly saying, 'well, you need to'.

"So there's that issue, the mental health issue, the fear of it.

"For other people, it's like, 'well actually being on furlough in lockdown has been great for me - I've got a garden, I've been able to go out walking every day, I've got great vegetables growing, I don't really want to go back to work, maybe I'll think about part-time or I'm going to retire early'."

She said some businesses in her constituency "simply can't get people to come back to work", saying: "They can't get staff because people have, to be perfectly frank, become used to being on furlough".

The issues "have very real consequences for our economy", Dame Andrea said.

"If we can't get our economy to bounce back then we can't start to pay this huge bill that we've already incurred for this lockdown, and that's critical at this point."

Dame Andrea said on Thursday it was "disappointing that some staff on furlough have taken on second jobs and then resigned when invited back to work".