The Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced measures in the summer statement to help the UK recover from the effects of the coronavirus.
Below we have put together a summarised brief of the announcements.
Jobs Retention Bonus: If an employer brings back a furloughed employee and keeps them in the job to January, then the Government will pay a £1,000 bonus per employee. Sunak stated, “It’s vital people aren’t just returning for the sake of it – they need to be doing decent work.”
For businesses to get the bonus, the employee must be paid at least £520 on average, in each month from November to the end of January – the equivalent of the lower earnings limit in National Insurance.
Temporary VAT cut for Hospitality and Tourism: VAT will be cut from 20% to 5% for the hospitality and tourism sectors from 15th July until the 12th January. This cut will apply to eat-in or hot takeaway food from restaurants, cafes and pubs, accommodation in hotels, B&Bs, campsites and caravan sites, attractions like cinemas, theme parks and zoos. Mr Sunak also announced an “Eat Out to Help Out” discount, which he said would help protect 1.8 million jobs.
Eat out to help out scheme: Discount offering 50% off, up to £10 per head on a meal out on certain days of the week (Monday to Wednesday) during August to help restaurants recover from the effects of covid-19. Businesses will need to register with the government to take part in the scheme.
A rise in the threshold for stamp duty: A temporary holiday on stamp duty on the first £500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland will run from now until 31st March next year.
A kick-start scheme: This scheme will be to help young people aged 16-24 who are at risk of unemployment, to get them back into work whereby employers can offer a 6-month work placement for those currently claiming universal credit.
A £3 billion green jobs plan was also announced – £2 billion in grants for homeowners to make homes more energy efficient and £1 billion to improve efficiency of public sector buildings along with a 1bn fund to go to DPW to offer advice and support.
Contact us to find out how we can support your workforce following the announcements.
Tel: 01252 863700 email:sales@epayme.co.uk
Source: BBC News (Live)