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One in five companies are planning to make some employees redundant, according to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce. Companies now must pay 20% of staff's salaries (since 1 August), with the government paying 60% as the furlough scheme tapers down towards its closure on 30 September. [pullquote]The recovery is clearly not working for everyone, with more than 630,000 people aged over 50 still on furlough and waiting to find out if they have a job to go back to” – Stuart Lewis, Rest Less[/pullquote] About 1.9 million workers were still on furlough as of 30 June, down from a peak of 5.1 million in January. Government figures show that 11.6 million jobs have been supported since the Job Retention Scheme launched in April 2020. The British Chambers of Commerce study found that 18% of firms were likely to make staff redundant because of the change in furlough rules. A quarter said they would aim to reduce hours or move staff to part-time working patterns. Jane Gratton, head of people policy at the BCC, said the change would “likely result in many thousands of people being released back into the labour market, as employers who are still struggling to recover from the recession are forced to make redundancies and cuts to working hours”. She said it was vital for employers and the government to give returning furloughed workers the support and training they needed “to be re-engaged and productive”. Older people's organisation Rest Less pointed out that, although the number of furloughed roles had fallen across all age groups, the proportion of over-50s on furlough had been steadily increasing this year, rising from 27% in January to 34% in June.Redundancy
Sharp fall in furlough but older people could be ‘trapped’How to carry out redundancies when employees have been furloughed
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