Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[roydo]

Furlough scheme extended till end of October.

No changes to rules and rates until at least 31 July. 80% seems to still apply.

Employers will be able to bring back furloughed workers part time from August.

Edit... But employers would have to pay some of the costs if they bring back people part time. But that is pretty expected I'd have thought.

They said anything about the self employed scheme being extended as well?

Based on the fact I havnt even been contacted yet, my confidence is low.

edit. Well thats not strictly true; they emailed me to say they will contact me. So ^^^^^ still.

 

[Toast]

Furlough scheme extended till end of October.

No changes to rules and rates until at least 31 July. 80% seems to still apply.

Employers will be able to bring back furloughed workers part time from August.

Edit... But employers would have to pay some of the costs if they bring back people part time. But that is pretty expected I'd have thought.

@Kev The Rat

 

[Brennan]

Can't complain at being extended until October, even if the employers will be asked to pay part of the 80% to unlock funding, which is what it sounded like.

 

[tsubaki]

They said anything about the self employed scheme being extended as well?

Based on the fact I havnt even been contacted yet, my confidence is low.

edit. Well thats not strictly true; they emailed me to say they will contact me. So ^^^^^ still.

that last bit means you count in the “has been contacted” statistics, roydo!

 

[davek]

Testing suggests 3% of NHS hospital staff may be unknowingly infected with coronavirus

Hospital staff may be carrying SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, without realising they are infected, according to a study by

www.cam.ac.uk

Is it peer reviewed?

 

[ToffeeTim]

They said anything about the self employed scheme being extended as well?

Based on the fact I havnt even been contacted yet, my confidence is low.

edit. Well thats not strictly true; they emailed me to say they will contact me. So ^^^^^ still.

Not heard anything about that yet. I think they are working to clear the backlog of claims first, and then they'll probably assess the costs and success of the scheme.

My instinct says yes it will be extended but not as long as October. But that's only my gut feeling, not based on anything.

 

[roydo]

Not heard anything about that yet. I think they are working to clear the backlog of claims first, and then they'll probably assess the costs and success of the scheme.

My instinct says yes it will be extended but not as long as October. But that's only my gut feeling, not based on anything.

Probably. The S/E system is way more complicated than the PAYE one, so I get that delays are to be expected.

Will wait by the post box anyrate, and see what figure they magic up for me.

 

[peteblue]

Furlough scheme extended till end of October.

No changes to rules and rates until at least 31 July. 80% seems to still apply.

Employers will be able to bring back furloughed workers part time from August.

Edit... But sounds like employers would have to pay some of the costs if they bring back people part time. But that is pretty expected I'd have thought.

I don’t like the sound of that tbh. Who is not expected back to work until October ?.....

 

[ToffeeTim]

Probably. The S/E system is way more complicated than the PAYE one, so I get that delays are to be expected.

Will wait by the post box anyrate, and see what figure they magic up for me.

It's a very tough scheme to run and I have a lot of sympathy with those at the revenue having to run it. But I hope people do get their money by the end of this month because it's been a long wait.

The furlough scheme is based on payrolls, usually done monthly, under RTI, so it's a lot simpler to administer. But to put 7m claims through is a huge effort too tbf.

 

[BlueToff]

Probably. The S/E system is way more complicated than the PAYE one, so I get that delays are to be expected.

Will wait by the post box anyrate, and see what figure they magic up for me.

Did you apply online mate?

Only asking as, even though I knew the answer, I applied online just to double-check I was eligible (I'm not).

 

[ToffeeTim]

I don’t like the sound of that tbh. Who is not expected back to work until October ?.....

Hospitality sector potentially.

But unfortunately I don't think it's about people not being expected to go back to work. Lots of people won't have jobs to go back to. It's sad and I don't like saying it, but I think it's inevitable.

I like the idea of allowing part time work from beginning of August though. If we can transition people back to work and save as many jobs as possible then I support it. It allows begins to share the cost between employer and treasury because we can't sustain the scheme in its current form in the long term.

I'm not someone who likes high taxes and I think high tax societies hurt commerce and trade. But the reality is we will be paying the bill for this for years, probably decades. The government should be up front and honest enough to say this. In these exceptional circumstances it's the only option.

 

[roydo]

Did you apply online mate?

Only asking as, even though I knew the answer, I applied online just to double-check I was eligible (I'm not).

No. The HMRC site said to sit tight and I/we would be contacted in May, with the details of how to claim and how much they had worked out.

The eligibility was pretty straight forward, unless you only started being S/E last year. For everyone else, it was Have you got a Pulse.

 

[Charro]

Ha Ha Ha.

You trust a man who wont acknowledge the kids he spawned, lied to the nation over Brexit, and has slaughtered 55,000 people so far?

Do you know the meaning of the word slaughtered?

 

[Brennan]

Do you know the meaning of the word slaughtered?

Don't waste your time...

 

[GwladysBlue]

I love how the right wing now see workers who have been furloughed through no fault of their own as he new ‘scroungers’.