I have received this update from the Chancellor:
I wrote to you in September highlighting the positive impact of the comprehensive and generous £200 billion package of support we have brought in since March to protect jobs, livelihoods and businesses.
In response to the new national restrictions announced by the Prime Minister to help tackle the spread of coronavirus, we are today confirming what support the Government will offer to help support businesses and individuals during this period.
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
I am confirming today that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) will be extended until 2 December 2020.
The scheme will operate on the same terms as the previous scheme and mirror the levels of support available under the scheme in August – this means that the government will pay 80 per cent of wages up to a cap of £2,500 for hours not worked.
Employers will not have to make any contribution to their employees’ wages for the hours not worked – they will only be asked to cover National Insurance and Employer pension contributions, which for the average claim accounts for just 5 per cent of total employment costs (or £70 per employee per month). Claims can be made from next week and as previously, paid within 6 working days.
The extended scheme will be open to new entrants; specifically, employees must have been employed and on an employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 30 October 2020. This means a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment for that employee to HMRC must have been made on or before 30 October 2020.
Neither the employer nor the employee needs to have previously used the CJRS to make a claim. Employees employed as of 23 September (day of the Job Support Scheme announcement) and notified to HMRC by RTI on or before that date, who have since been made redundant can be rehired and placed on the Scheme.
Support for the self-employed
Today, the Government is also announcing that we will provide more generous support to the self-employed and will pay that support more quickly. We are increasing the support to the self-employed from 40 per cent of trading profits to 80 per cent for November. As SEISS grants are calculated over 3 months, this increases the total level of the grant from 40 per cent to 55 per cent of trading profits for November to January and the maximum grant will increase to £5,160.
This provides broadly equivalent support to the self-employed as we are providing to employees through the government contribution in the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in November and then the Job Support Scheme in the two subsequent months. HMRC will pay this more generous grant sooner than planned and in good time for Christmas – the window for claiming a grant will open on 30 November, two weeks earlier than previously announced.
Loan extensions
We have announced that we plan to extend our loan schemes – the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Future Fund – to the end of January.
We will also adjust the Bounce Back Loan Scheme rules to allow those businesses who have taken out less than their maximum (i.e. less than 25 per cent of their turnover) to top-up their existing loan giving businesses greater flexibility and support. Businesses will be able to take up this option from next week; they can make use of this option once.
Mortgage payment holidays
Mortgage payment holidays will continue to be available for homeowners. Borrowers who have been impacted by coronavirus and have not yet had a mortgage payment holiday will be entitled to a six-month holiday and those that have already started a mortgage payment holiday will be able to top up to a maximum of six months without this being recorded on their credit file. The FCA will announce further details on the scheme, including how customers can continue to apply for this support.
Support for local businesses in England
Throughout the crisis, we have provided support for businesses. We are today confirming that businesses which are forced to close due to the new restrictions will receive up to £3,000 per month – this is worth over £1 billion a month under the new national restrictions and will benefit over 600,000 businesses.
Businesses in the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors that have been suffering from reduced demand for a while due to local restrictions will receive back dated grants at 70 per cent of the value of closed grants (up to £2,100 per month) for this period.
We are also providing one off funding of £1.1 billion to local authorities to support businesses more broadly over the coming months, who are a key part of our local economies.
More funding for English Local Authorities to support their local healthcare response
Up to £500 million will be provided to local councils for local public health initiatives, such as additional contact tracing, testing for hard-to-reach groups and communications.
The Contain Outbreak Management Fund has already supported several English Upper Tier Local Authorities to fund local public health initiatives. Where necessary, they will have this funding topped up to a maximum of £8 per head of population. If they have not received any to date, they will be entitled to the full £8 per head.
We are also providing additional funding to local authorities to support the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable now that revised guidance is in place nationally. Funding will be provided of up to £14.60 per Clinically Extremely Vulnerable person for the 28-day period that the restrictions are in force. We will review this funding after the 28-day period should the strictest guidance remain in place in any one area once the initial 28-day period is over.
Alongside our £200 billion package of support committed since March, these announcements will give businesses the support and flexibility to adjust and plan over the coming months.
RT HON RISHI SUNAK MP
November 3, 2020
Meanwhile, a £45m deal for NHS masks collapses amid fraud claims. Millions of respirators are missing as medical company sues its supplier in US.
This is the sort of mess that the Tory outsourcing dogma ALWAYS risks.
November 3, 2020
JR, for those of us who have not received any free money from Johnson’s magic money tree can we be assured that we will not be expected to pay any extra tax whatsoever for the grossly incompetent useless, waster in No.10?
I am already exercised to paying taxes to provide free housing for his mistress. I did not read in your manifesto that cultural Marxism, promoting misfit/disfunctional families was one of your social policies.
November 3, 2020
No support for commercial landlords. The support for businesses in <£15k RV property is £1,300 per month. This is nowhere near enough to cover ongoing business costs.
November 3, 2020
Lynn,
Where was the parliamentary authoritymgiven for the money JR writes about a. I thought govt had authority to spend £11 billion in emergencies but all other spending required parliamentary debate and votes?
November 3, 2020
Oh, great! That’s all right, then.
November 3, 2020
Could I have some free money please from the magic money tree. You gave me nothing first time around. You put up illegal migrants who committed crime in Four star hotels. How about me? I paid all my taxes and NI never scrounged off the state, somhow about me?
November 3, 2020
Me too please! I don’t know if this happened to you Hope but the Conservative Party also moved forward my pension age twice, once by more than 4 years and then again by 18 months despite the pension age rising by only 12 months on that occasion and they didn’t even bother to tell me! As you say it must be our turn for some ‘free money’ too! I also seem to remember being told that those immigrants were coming here to pay for our pensions, not for us to put them up in four star hotels and what about our proper Brexit!
November 3, 2020
Me too Jane
November 3, 2020
Magic money tree.
Yesterday 132 deaths from Covid or related illness out of a daily total of 1700.
Do we have to trash the country for such a miniscule number of deaths.
November 3, 2020
I welcome the extension to the self employed bounce back loans
Lets hope this info is fed to banks asap as currently no extension allowed
November 3, 2020
Update – Banks are not aware of this initiative
November 3, 2020
Where is the money coming from for all this? (A rhetorical question. No need to reply, folks.
I think we all know the answer.)
Has the Chancellor sent this letter to MPs to forestall a negative vote tomorrow in Parliament?
Thank you, Sir John, for making this available to us. I will be watching to see which way my MP votes.
November 3, 2020
Probably from the ‘little peoples’ bank accounts, as I suspect that sneaky ditto Osbourne created in 2014 that gives HMRC the power to invade your bank account hasn’t been retracted and of course private sector pension schemes again.
Politicians and the rest of the public sector will be unaffected as usual.
November 3, 2020
Still no recognition that real world freelancers swap between multiple umbrella companies constantly, and their own personal service company, sometimes in parallel too. Absolutely no help for many with this work pattern over many years, despite being taxed significantly and getting no sick pay etc.
Who exactly are you expecting to vote conservative the next time?
November 3, 2020
Good afternoon.
All that has happened is the kicking of the can down the road. Cowards !
November 3, 2020
Same road same can – utter madness
November 3, 2020
+1 – rather like Brexit were they kicked the can down the road for about 20 years often promising referendums before election but never actually delivering them. Until cast rubber Cameron was finally forced into one.
November 3, 2020
Most people voted consistently for resolutely pro-European Union parties from 1975 onwards.
Only when a marginal result was expected did Cameron use his gimmick referendum to win over the BNP/ukip vote to get his party over the line.
November 3, 2020
No mention of who will end up picking up all these bills. It will be private sector who are being hugely damaged by this shutdown, endless damaging red tape, the absurdly high tax rates (already), the daft & complex employment laws and expensive energy agenda.
They only escape will be to cull about half of the largely parasitic state sector. Release them to get some real jobs. Ones that pay tax in rather than take it out.
November 3, 2020
“cull about half of the largely parasitic state sector”
An excellent idea and a necessary task. Big government = big cost = huge disadvantage for the taxpayer.
November 3, 2020
Yep this whole thing is showing clearly how poor quality the public sector is, including the state religion the NHS.
November 4, 2020
Indeed the NHS kill nearly all competiton (by being free at the point of use) and then it fails millions. Another dire state monopoly.
November 3, 2020
The support schemes seem to be well thought through and in slight defence of the govt, they do seem as far as possible to be trying to ensure business can keep going during this lockdown. Although obviously for many businesses such as retail, hospitality and gyms it’s a disaster.
But there is no substitute for normality and I think MPs must press relentlessly for publication of all the data and assumptions behind the forecasts upon which the lockdown policy is based, and request that it be subject to rigorous, and public, scrutiny by independent experts. Ie experts who are not part of the sage set-up, and perhaps including renowned international scientists. The opposition aren’t calling for this as they should be, they are useless. So the Country needs to look to independent minded backbench Conservative MPs like our distinguished host.
November 3, 2020
Richard But how long can we continue this madness?
November 3, 2020
The client state.
There was a time when the Conservatives viewed this as poison.
November 3, 2020
The apocalypse of the four horsemen from the book of revelation is underway it is unfolding right before your eyes, this is about destroying the very basis of society, the natural family, love of country, respect for human life and freedom of education and business it is coming in the form of a world health emergency to which people find hard to argue against under a health dictatorship lead by the few with pharmaceutical groups with the intention of vaccination and requirement of a health passport and digital ID with contact tracing of the population of the western world if you do not conform your passport, driving licence and assets my be taken away.
November 3, 2020
So we’re just paying for this gigantic scam by loading up on even more unpayable debt and robbing our children. I wonder at what point this will come back as a tsunami of disaster?
November 3, 2020
is all very fine with lots of “we are providing…”, but as Churchill once said: “There is nothing government can give you that it hasn’t taken from you in the first place”.
Much of this should not be necessary, who is going to pay for it all?
November 3, 2020
Why only a 6 month mortgage holiday when some businesses and self employed have not had any earnings for 8 months to date, with again some not even able to claim any form of support.
November 3, 2020
Please advise your Chancellor to turn on the printing presses and to not borrow and pay interest on this created money.
The inflationary pressures from made up money from whichever source are the same, it is just the interest charge that differs.
There are enough cronies getting rich from this outbreak already without paying unnecessary interest to banks
November 3, 2020
I only recently twigged why they are so keen on low interest rates.
By how much has the country’s debt increased since the beginning of this lurid shenanigan?
November 4, 2020
The only reason it is borrowed rather than printed is so they can say there is no magic money tree when it suits them.
There is no magic money tree when that leads to inflationary pressures but if money is being created by government borrowing there really is no point in paying interest on it.
November 3, 2020
Who’s paying for all this?
November 3, 2020
We are!
And that is how they will justify annihilating us with eye-watering taxes.
Isn’t there already weasel muttering in the dark, wild wood about taxing shoffices!
Nice people these politicians.
November 3, 2020
What you mean are a universal income and debt forgiveness as set out by the IMF to which your gov is now bringing in.
November 3, 2020
+1
November 3, 2020
So much owed by so many.
November 3, 2020
Caterpillar. Hello! I don’t see Churchill around anywhere.
November 3, 2020
CJRS available now that the south are affected, but not when it was only the north.
No shortage of money for London, as usual.
Tories haven’t got many supporters in the north, abnd we will rememnbeer this.
Farage has started yet another party, so there is an alternative.
How many came in today on the south coast ?
November 3, 2020
Totally crazy stuff.
We all thought Brown was crazy bailing out the banks. Now 12 years later we have this mind boggling idiocy.
Will it ever be worth turning up for work again with furlough as a lifestyle option? What does this teach the younger generation? You don’t have to work, because the state will prop you up if you can’t find your way round it because of some natural inconvenience to a segment of the population?
We’ll have had a year of this by the time it has a hope of ending, which of course it won’t because there’ll be some other scheme to prop up the feckless. This just wouldn’t have happened pre-Major. Let’s get Reform UK Party going now
November 3, 2020
Its no good writing letters.
In history there have only been a few men with the oratory skills
and the personality to lead.
Cut the string of fear and get out there.
What actually have you got to lose ?
Keep away from Peter
November 3, 2020
+1 – rather like Brexit were they kicked the can down the road for about 20 years often promising referendums before election but never actually delivering them. Until cast rubber Cameron was finally forced into one.
November 3, 2020
Yes..let’s have DEATH statistics published in simple terms from every cause, day by day.
Let’s do that.
I’ll start it off
According to WHO figures 40-50 million abortions per year. Or roughly 125,000 abortions per day.
COVID…pah!
BTW..according to vids I have seen they are living it up in Woohan. No antisocial distancing. No masks. Just party…..