Uncertain futures

Professor Frank Peck, research director of the Centre for Regional Economic Development (CRED) at the University of Cumbria’s Institute of Business, Industry & Leadership discusses how employment in Cumbria will be impacted by the end of the Government’s furlough scheme. There now seems little doubt that the introduction of the UK’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) announced on March 20 has protected the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of UK workers and provided vital stability for businesses over the past months. The furlough scheme closed to new claims on June 30 and by the end of July over 1.16m employers had submitted claims affecting 9.6m ‘employments’. On March 26 support was extended to the self-employed through the introduction of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). Eligible individuals could receive cash grants worth 80 per sent of their average monthly trading profit over the previous three years up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.