Chancellor unveils new Job Support Scheme

At lunchtime, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced plans to launch a new job support scheme that will see the Government top up employees’ wages.

The scheme, which is available to all small and medium-sized businesses, as well as larger businesses if they have experienced a drop in turnover, will pay one-third of employees’ wages for the hours that are not worked if the employee works at least a third of their normal hours. This would mean that employees must work a minimum of 33% of their normal hours, for the remaining hours not worked, the government and employer will pay one third of wages each. This will mean that employees working 33% of their hours will receive at least 77% of their pay. The idea behind the scheme is that it will enable employers to retain workers on reduced hours, so that employees are not made redundant.

The Job Support scheme will last for six months and start from November, taking over from the current furlough scheme, which is due to end on the 31 October 2020. It will run alongside the Job Retention Bonus, as well as other initiatives aimed to help get people back into work such as the Kickstart Scheme.

Employees eligible for the Job Support Scheme must be employed to work two-thirds of their normal hours and it is available to anyone who is employment from 23 September 2020.

In his statement, the Chancellor did not provide details about how the Job Support Scheme can be applied for. It could work in the same way as the furlough scheme, which would mean that employees would not have to do anything, but instead it will down to their employer to apply for the scheme.

Yesterday, the Chancellor announced that there would be no Autumn Budget. Many were predicting that the Autumn Budget would involve tax increases to help pay for Government schemes that were announced at the beginning of the nationwide lockdown in March. Instead, the next budget is now set to take place in spring 2021.