CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak has announced major changes to the Coronavirus financial support for workers. Here's what it could mean for you.

Furlough scheme

The furlough scheme will be extended  until the end of March, with eligible employees to receive 80% of their usual salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.

The Treasury says firms will have flexibility to use the scheme for employees “for any amount of time and shift pattern, including furloughing them full-time.”

Apart from National Insurance and pension contributions, employers won’t have to pay anything at the moment, though the government will review the scheme in January “to decide whether economic circumstances are improving enough to ask employers to contribute more.”

Neither the employer nor the employee needs to have previously claimed or have been claimed for under the furloucgh scheme to make a new claim. 

The extension of the furlough scheme means the job retention bonus won’t be paid in February.

The purpose of that scheme was to encourage employers to keep people in work until the end of January, but the extension of the job retention scheme means the “policy intent of the JRB falls away.”


For self-employed workers

The next grant under the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme will be 80% of trading profits covering November to January for all parts of the UK. This is up from 55%. 

It is calculated based on 80% of three months’ average trading profits, paid out in a single instalment and capped at £7,500.

There will be a fourth SEISS grant covering February to April, with more further details, including the level, set out in due course.

Loans and payment holidays

The government will also extend the application deadline for loan schemes – that is, the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, Future Fund, and Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme – to the end of January 2021. 

Mortgage payment holidays will continue to be available for homeowners in the UK. 

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 six months without this being recorded on their credit file. 

Payment holidays will also continue to be available for consumer credit products such as personal loans and car finance. As with mortgages, borrowers impacted by coronavirus who have not yet taken a payment holiday on that product can ask for one of up to 6 months and those that currently have a payment holiday will be eligible to top up to six months without this being recorded on their credit file.