The Chancellor announced some action to preserve jobs today, but
the new scheme will still see a new wave of job losses and there
was no new action to retrain workers, create new jobs or ensure
that the vital social security lifeline remains in place as the
next wave of unemployment takes hold.
The new job support scheme to top up wages on a part time basis
will help some sectors which have seen a downturn in activity,
but for other sectors jobs which would be viable in the long term
will still be lost and more people will be at risk of poverty.
The ongoing economic impact may therefore continue to hit groups
such as women, BAME groups and young workers disproportionately.
Helen Barnard, Director of the independent Joseph Rowntree
Foundation said:
“The Chancellor’s initial policy response to the economic impact
of Covid was bold and compassionate. We need the policy response
to the next wave to be similarly bold, but the announcements
today failed to meet that test.
“Jobs that have been viable in the past and will be again in the
future need specific support to get through the current crisis.
But the design of this scheme risks undermining its success and
leading to more job losses by creating an unnecessary
disincentive to employers to make use of it.
“Where jobs are truly not viable, the government must urgently
make good on its manifesto promise to establish a Right to
Retrain so that whole areas and industries are not cut adrift
amid a gathering storm. Too many people now find themselves on
the brink of being pulled further into poverty during the course
of this year – people in the lowest paid roles, in areas where
there are fewer new opportunities, and sectors where close
contact is unavoidable.
“The mark of a compassionate society also has to be that we
protect the worst off during hard times, and this makes retaining
the lifeline of the £20 uplift in Universal Credit and extending
it to legacy benefits even more crucial. Without a budget to
address these wider issues, we need to hear from the Chancellor
urgently about how he will help the worst off who look set to be
the least well equipped to face the coming storm.”
