It’s even worse than that. Far too few details have been released about the conditions of the programme for employers to make sensible decisions. In particular, does it apply to people made redundant last week? Do employers have to confirm no redundancy for some period after the furlough ends? Can Tier 2 sponsored migrants benefit? What checks will there be? Why don’t we know the programme for the self-employed yet? It is astonishing that this policy is being written on the fly. Didn’t they know two months ago or at least two weeks ago that a lockdown might be a possibility? It’s grotesque incompetence.
Will it apply to those who have never worked or just those like MPs?
Colin Elliott
4 years ago
That’s a valid criticism, but not a fatal flaw. No doubt it can be changed if enough representations are made, but my guess is that it makes it ‘binary’, whereas not having the exclusion would tempt every business which was able to continue in business to claim. That in itself might be worth it, but I suspect that they modelled the answer (‘what if’), and found that it might add seriously to what is already going to be an enormous expenditure.
graham
4 years ago
Businesses have been losing orders since well before the lockdown. Peter Franklin is very right. For any sensible business owner, the most important matter is to make sure the business is leaner and fitter when we recover. This cannot happen when people are at home twiddling their thumbs. Not enough information has been given to enable businesses to make rational decisions. No mention has been made of self employed business owners who occupy premises, keep stock and whose bills for premises rent, contracted commitments (things paid monthly by direct debit) far exceed the level of support the Government has offered the self employed.They still need to pay these even when money coming in is a fraction of their outgoings. Certainly it would be far better to allow people to work to grow the economy. Those companies who get support they did not need could always repay the money as tax when their next accounts are processed. Some safeguards will need to be taken against companies who move profits by one part charging another part of the company for ‘intellectual property’.
mike otter
4 years ago
Along with many other business owners i think the govt scheme is at best ill conceived and impossible to implement or at worst the sort of dishonest spin we usually associate with greenies and leftists: How can businesses put the money up front and claim it back from HMRC when we are no longer invoicing and therefore have no money left in the company to pay the “furloughed” or those self isolating as they ahve symptoms which may be SARS-Cov2 or just a cold?
It’s even worse than that. Far too few details have been released about the conditions of the programme for employers to make sensible decisions. In particular, does it apply
to people made redundant last week? Do employers have to confirm no redundancy for some period after the furlough ends? Can Tier 2 sponsored migrants benefit? What checks will there be? Why don’t we know the programme for the self-employed yet? It is astonishing that this policy is being written on the fly. Didn’t they know two months ago or at least two weeks ago that a lockdown might be a possibility? It’s grotesque incompetence.
It’s written on the fly because it’s urgent.
Will it apply to those who have never worked or just those like MPs?
That’s a valid criticism, but not a fatal flaw. No doubt it can be changed if enough representations are made, but my guess is that it makes it ‘binary’, whereas not having the exclusion would tempt every business which was able to continue in business to claim. That in itself might be worth it, but I suspect that they modelled the answer (‘what if’), and found that it might add seriously to what is already going to be an enormous expenditure.
Businesses have been losing orders since well before the lockdown. Peter Franklin is very right. For any sensible business owner, the most important matter is to make sure the business is leaner and fitter when we recover. This cannot happen when people are at home twiddling their thumbs. Not enough information has been given to enable businesses to make rational decisions. No mention has been made of self employed business owners who occupy premises, keep stock and whose bills for premises rent, contracted commitments (things paid monthly by direct debit) far exceed the level of support the Government has offered the self employed.They still need to pay these even when money coming in is a fraction of their outgoings. Certainly it would be far better to allow people to work to grow the economy. Those companies who get support they did not need could always repay the money as tax when their next accounts are processed. Some safeguards will need to be taken against companies who move profits by one part charging another part of the company for ‘intellectual property’.
Along with many other business owners i think the govt scheme is at best ill conceived and impossible to implement or at worst the sort of dishonest spin we usually associate with greenies and leftists: How can businesses put the money up front and claim it back from HMRC when we are no longer invoicing and therefore have no money left in the company to pay the “furloughed” or those self isolating as they ahve symptoms which may be SARS-Cov2 or just a cold?