Shadow Chancellor fires jobs warning over ‘flawed’ support scheme

THE jobs of almost three million people working for small businesses are “hanging in the balance” as a result of the Government’s “flawed” support scheme, Labour has claimed.

More than 130,000 small to mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), including restaurants, clubs and event operators cannot run their business or are trading at reduced capacity following new Covid-related restrictions, the

Opposition said. The Chancellor’s new job support scheme makes it more expensive for employers to keep workers on part-time than employ some full-time and let others go, Labour said.

Over a million SMEs are still suffering a fall in turnover, with around 310,000 turning over less than half the amount they did over the same period last year, it was estimated. Under the new job support scheme, bringing back one bar manager full-time will cost £455.30 a week, but it would cost £610.89 for the same bar to bring back two workers for half their working week, Labour said.

Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds, speaking during a visit to Chesterfield yesterday, said: “These are viable businesses that just need support to cope with the restrictions the Government has imposed on them.

They pinned their hopes on the Chancellor to deliver, but he’s pulling up the drawbridge at the worst possible time.”

A Treasury spokesman said: “Our support for business has reached, and continues to reach, millions of firms. The Job Support Scheme is designed to protect jobs in businesses facing lower demand over the winter due to Covid and is just one form of support on offer to employers during this difficult period.”

Ms Dodds added: “They do need to change course. They do need to so quickly with those deadlines around redundancy upon us right now.

“This doesn’t have to be a scheme that is much more expensive but it does have to be a scheme that is effective because we’ve got to keep people in work right now.”