The pandemic might not be over yet but the government are indeed looking forward. As part of his summer statement, essentially a mini statement designed to help the country bounce back, Rushi Sunak today introduced his Eat Out To Help Out scheme. This is to try and get people back out and about, enjoy eating at restaurants and inject some much needed cash back into the struggling sector.
What Is Eat Out To Help Out?
This new Eat Out To Help Out scheme is designed to help the struggling industry and support the almost 2 million people who work in the sector. It will work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays during August. That’s 13 days where restaurant and pub bills will be halved in a bid to encourage you to dine out. It will be capped at £10 per person and also includes kids meals. So a family of four could dine out, spend £80 and only pay £40. No booze will be included however you can use it an unlimited amount of times.
How Will It Work?
In order to offer the discount, businesses will have to register with the scheme via Gov.uk. They will also need to be be Food Standards Agency approved. Rather than using actual restaurant vouchers which could lead to fraud, establishments will be able to claim back the cash. These refunds will appear in the bank accounts of the company within five working days. More information about the Eat Out To Help Out scheme will be released later in July.
Sounds Good
What do you think? It sounds like a good idea really. It’s never been tried before and if anyone is going to try new things out, it feels like Rishi Sunak is going to be the one to do it. My only issue with this is that it was easy to put this out as a scheme, yet the free meals for kids over the summer holidays was something the Government wanted to scrap and only continued after lots of pressure. Priorities.
