New Covid jobs support scheme for Melton workers

It will be replaced by a new Job Support Scheme, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in the House of Commons, with reduced financial assistance.

Under the new scheme, employees have to work at least one-third of their usual working hours to qualify with the government and the employer paying up to two-thirds of the wages for six months from November.

More than 6,500 workers in the Melton borough are currently furloughed with government currently paying 70 per cent of a person’s wage, down from 80 per cent when it was launched in March.

Mr Sunak also said self-employed people would continue to get their grant on the same terms as the Job Support Scheme.

Nearly 2,000 self-employed people across the Melton borough have been given grant payments.

Hospitality businesses, which from today must close at 10pm because of tightened Covid-19 restrictions, got some good news in the Chancellor’s announcement in that the VAT cut from 20 per cent to five per cent, which was brought in in July, will be extended until March.

Businesses which have borrowed money through a loan scheme operated by the government since lockdown will also have more time to pay back the money.

How will the new schemes affect you?

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