British Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Summer Statement – A “Plan for Jobs”

published on 10 July 2020 | reading time approx. 1 minute

On 8 July, the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, gave his summer statement setting out his plans to boost the country's economy. Sunak announced in his opening remarks that he was making a "plan for jobs" to protect, create and support employment.

The three key employment measures to be implemented are as follows:

Furlough scheme

The Chancellor confirmed that the furlough scheme will wind down flexibly and gradually up until the end of October. He said that to leave it open forever would, "give people false hope that it would always be possible to return the jobs they had before".

Sunak set out his plans for a job retention bonus to help wind down the scheme in which businesses will be paid £1,000 to retain furloughed staff and continuously employ them through to the end of January 2021. To be eligible, employees must earn above the lower earnings limit (currently £520 per month) on average between the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the end of January 2021. Payments will be made from February 2021. Further detail about the scheme is expected to be announced at the end of July. Sunak estimated that this would cost the Treasury more than £9 billion if every furloughed job is protected.

Kickstart scheme

Sunak also announced the "Kickstart Job Creation Scheme" to fund the direct creation of "high quality" six-month work placements aimed at those aged 16-24 who are currently in receipt of Universal Credit (unemployment benefit) and are deemed to be at risk of long-term unemployment. The intention of course is for the jobs to continue after the initial six-month paid period.

Funding for each job will cover 100 percent of the relevant national minimum wage for 25 hours' a week plus the associated National Insurance contributions and employers' minimum automatic enrolment pension contributions.

Training

Apprenticeships will be supported by bonuses for companies. Between 1 August and 31 January 2021, firms will get a payment of £2,000 for each apprentice that they take on and those taking on apprentices aged over 25 will be given £1,500.

We will update this article with more details on the measures as soon as they are published.