I’ve been reading so much about the support people here in the UK are getting through the Covid 19 pandemic. Earlier today there were some vague announcements regarding how the furlough scheme that is in place will develop over the coming months.
What Is The Furlough Scheme?
When the Coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, the United Kingdom shut down many businesses. With that, people couldn’t work and hence couldn’t earn money. The furlough scheme was set up to provide workers 80% of their monthly wage up to £2500. This was to be paid by the government and once it was announced it seemed like quite a good thing for everyone. Of course there were people who have fallen through the support net and have been treated really badly. I feel for those people as they are having to deal with no support whilst being in the exact same situation as everyone else. The current world id stressful enough without having money woes.
What’s Changing?
The government have announced the longer term plans for the furlough scheme, taking us to the end of October 2020. Things will staying place in exactly the same way until the end of July. That gives an extra two months on top of the first three months of support. It looks like after that it will drop to 60% support as the government tries to get people back to work. The difference, just like now, could be made up by companies, but considering there are so many companies who have refused to furlough people, I doubt a lot of companies would do this. Some of them probably don’t have the funds to do that. I did read about P&O Ferries cutting jobs whilst paying out £270m in dividends. So whilst some companies don’t have the funds, others clearly do. They just don’t want to help.
Self Employed Need Help Too
Just as it was earlier in the year, there has been no mention of the self employed. The furlough scheme was announce well in advance of the self employed support scheme and it appears that once again the 15% of the country who are self employed are being viewed in the afterthought. Maybe we should start not paying our taxes, or paying some taxes before others? Whilst I certainly wouldn’t do that as I do things by the book, it does annoy me at how things cannot be announced at the same time so everyone knows what is going on collectively. I would hope that the self employment support will be extended just like the furlough scheme.
Communities Are More Supportive Than Government
Throughout all of this i have found that there is much more support in the local community than there has been from the government. Small businesses have stepped up and are providing local people with food. Networks of people have set up to help others who are perhaps shielding. I know that our church is supporting by providing meals every week. Whilst the government should be focusing on the bigger picture and sorting out the battle against the virus, they’ve barely done that. But that’s another set of opinions for another day.
Take Charge Of Your Own Destiny
One thing I’ve learned over the last few weeks is we must take charge of the direction we’re all individually going. The government doesn’t have a clue, as shown in the confusing Boris Johnson speech on Sunday 10th May. Which had to be followed up on the Monday morning by more information, a lot of which was incorrect. We’re all in this same strange situation, we should be able to rely on the government. The fact is that we can’t. When they’re saying that kids are going back to school, don’t send them back unless you want to. I’m setting up new arms of my business to take more charge of things myself. This means I am less reliant on clients and hence the government if something like this happens.
Health Over Economy
The furlough scheme should support everyone. We all pay into the pot and should be supported by the pot. It wasn’t long ago that the government were bailing out the banks. More specifically the bankers on ridiculous wages who can’t actually look after cash. Whilst the government are supporting the Champagne sippers and using tax payer money to set up their own home offices, there are a vast number of people who don’t know how they’ll put food on the table. We should be supported and health put first, with the furlough scheme and other initiatives helping people out. The economy is not more important than the lives of the people in our nation. There is clearly enough money to go around if they’re spending millions on PPE equipment that isn’t up to standard. The government are talking the talk but they’re a long way off walking the proper walk.
