Chancellor's announcement on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: REC response

In response to the Chancellor’s announcement on changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Neil Carberry, CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said:

“The furlough scheme has been vital in avoiding mass redundancies, and the decision to taper off the scheme rather than cut it off more abruptly is right. Continued support for the self-employed is also the right call, though we regret the lack of help for limited company directors in today’s statement.

“Co-payment for furlough will make sense in many sectors, but it is unlikely to work for temps at a time when agencies have little income from clients with which to meet the bills. Because of that, getting the temp market working again must be a priority – that’s why addressing barriers like Statutory Sick Pay costs matters to agencies.

“The Chancellor is right to turn his attention to how we recover. With the claimant count unemployment already above two million, we face a crisis of a scale not seen for many decades. Recruitment and staffing industry firms are the specialists in helping people find work and companies to grow – we are ready to support Government to deliver innovative new plans to tackle unemployment.” 

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