The government today announced it will significantly increase the generosity and reach of its winter support schemes to ensure livelihoods and jobs across the UK continue to be protected in the difficult months to come, supporting jobs and helping to contain the virus.
In recognition of the challenging winter ahead, the Chancellor has increased financial support through the existing Job Support and self-employed schemes.
For areas with increased restrictions, business grants have also been expanded, on top of separate financial agreements made with individual Local Authorities.
In response to the Chancellor’s Statement, James welcomed the extra support in this Plan for Jobs and called for longer term support with a Tourism Zone for Norfolk & Suffolk, and to accelerate the rollout of gigabit-capable broadband. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/lOMBlTSVdGA
Job Support Scheme (JSS)
When originally announced, the JSS – which will come into effect on 1 November – saw employers paying a third of their employees’ wages for hours not worked, and required employers to be working 33% of their normal hours.
Today’s announcement:
- reduces the employer contribution to those unworked hours to just 5%
- reduces the minimum hours requirements to 20%,
This means that those working just one day a week will be eligible, so if someone was being paid £587 for their unworked hours the government would be contributing £543 and their employer only £44.
In addition, employers will continue to receive the £1,000 Job Retention Bonus.
Self-employed grant
Today’s announcement increases the amount of profits covered by the two forthcoming self-employed grants from 20% to 40% meaning the maximum grant will increase from £1,875 to £3,750.
This is a potential further £3.1 billion of support to the self-employed through November to January alone, with a further grant to follow covering February to April.
Business Grants
The Chancellor has also announced cash grants of up to £2,100 per month primarily for businesses in the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sector who may be adversely impacted by the restrictions in high-alert areas. These grants will be available retrospectively for areas who have already been subject to restrictions, and come on top of higher levels of additional business support for Local Authorities moving into Tier 3.
These grants could benefit around 150,000 businesses in England, including hotels, restaurants, B&Bs and many more who aren’t legally required to close but have been adversely affected by local restrictions nonetheless.
