Rishi Sunak Sets up Bleak Winter for Many

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has confirmed that when the furlough scheme ends, a considerably reduced version will replace it, effectively throwing viable businesses under the bus.

In making his economic statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Sunak seemed to take the line that whilst the furlough scheme saved many businesses, the time was now to only support those that are viable.

The problem here is, that many businesses that were viable prior to the pandemic are temporarily unviable.  So, in other words, the Chancellor has decided that if your business is badly affected by Coronavirus restrictions, your business is not resilient enough for his help any longer.

A very tough approach indeed, and essentially guarantees a round of mass redundancies as the original furlough scheme comes to an end at the end of October.

Business owners and managers will now be looking at how the considerably less generous scheme could help their businesses, or whether their viability as a going concern has just been trashed by the government.  Indeed, for many small business owners, all their investment in time and money could very well be trashed because the Chancellor has decided on who is and who isn’t viable and thus not worth saving.

It gets worse for those newly self-employed.  There continues to be no help.  Newly self-employed persons, who similarly have put all their effort into starting up, investing in their ideas and putting in many hours for little return, now face complete and utter ruin.

For those who are established as self-employed, that is to say, they have been trading for over two years and have previous years accounts, can access and extended support scheme on similar terms to the one at the start of the pandemic, but quite how this will play out remains to be seen.  As the old adage goes, the devil is in the detail, and when the chancellor’s supporting document was released, it was very light on that detail to say the least.

For many, whether employed or self-employed, it is set to be a very bleak winter, and that’s before any talk of exponentially increasing coronavirus infections.

Originally posted here: https://kevcoy.co.uk/2020/09/24/rishi-sunak-sets-up-bleak-winter-for-many/