New figures have revealed that South Lakeland is more reliant on the furlough scheme than anywhere else in the UK. Statistics from HM Revenue and Customs show around 9,000 jobs were furloughed in South Lakeland as of December 31. At 20 per cent of all eligible jobs, this was the highest rate across the whole of the UK. But, it was a decrease compared to 10,000 at the end of November. The data also revealed that women in South Lakeland were slightly more likely to be furloughed than men, with a take-up rate of 20 per cent, compared to 19 per cent. Jobs at firms which are unable to operate or have no work for their employees because of coronavirus are eligible for furlough pay from the Government – with workers currently getting 80 per cent of their wages, up to £2,500 per month.
A TOURISM chief has backed growing calls for a special recovery fund to be set up for tourism and hospitality businesses that have been pushed into economic freefall as a result of the pandemic. According to Jim Jones, the chief executive of North Wales Tourism, it was also essential that existing financial support measures were extended to help them survive 2021. Thousands of jobs had already been lost and the scale of the financial disaster has been “cataclysmic” for the region. Visit Britain forecasts that during the pandemic, tourism revenues had fallen by £68.8billion cross the UK, while in North Wales a recent study had shown there had been a devastating drop of £2.17bn in the income generation by the sector.
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As a result of this, a “Targeted Income Grant Scheme” (TIGS) has been proposed and presented to the state, which aims to provide support to workers who have been excluded from SEISS.
Rishi Sunak recently confirmed the treasury is considering the scheme and Liron Smadja, a Director at Fiverr, commented on the current state of affairs: The Government’s extension of the SEISS is encouraging for Britain’s army of self-employed entrepreneurs - but there are some serious issues in the way it’s been targeted. The continual mounting issue of SEISS eligibility has left thousands of self-employed workers unable to access Government support - and with the deadline for the third set of payments rapidly approaching, it’s crucial that this issue is addressed.
THE WELSH Government has revealed further details of the £200m package of support for non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism businesses that continue to be impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The latest funding is linked to the non-domestic rates system and will operate as a top up to the Restrictions Business Fund which was put in place in early December. It brings this latest phase of Welsh Government support to £650m and will help businesses with operational costs through to the end of March. Businesses with a rateable value of £12,000 or under will be eligible to receive a payment of £3,000.
Self-employed construction workers claimed £2.3bn worth of government income support grants in a month after the latest round of the scheme opened.
Between 30 November and 31 December, 659,000 construction workers claimed money from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). This was equal to 63 per cent of all eligible workers in the industry. The average claim was just under £3,400.
Construction workers have been the biggest users of the programme with three times more claims coming from the industry than the next highest claiming sector, transportation and storage, reflecting the high level of self-employment among builders.
A total of £5.4bn was claimed in the third round of the SEISS up to the end of December, with the £2.3bn claimed by construction workers accounting for 43 per cent of this.