{"id":7613,"date":"2020-03-23T10:51:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T10:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/?p=7613"},"modified":"2020-03-23T11:50:14","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T11:50:14","slug":"letter-in-response-to-the-chancellor-of-the-exchequers-announcement-of-support-for-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/blog\/letter-in-response-to-the-chancellor-of-the-exchequers-announcement-of-support-for-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter in response to the Chancellor of the Exchequer\u2019s announcement of support for businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A welcome change but more is needed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We welcome the government\u2019s new measures to support workers,\nparticularly the introduction of grants for wage support. But despite the scale\nof these spending commitments, there is a real danger that millions of workers\nwill not feel their benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government must move decisively to get cash into the bank accounts\nof households and firms before the economic dominos start to fall. Substantial\nsupport has been announced, which will be welcomed by many workers — but it\nwill not reach all who need it. The government is certainly moving in the right\ndirection, but the new measures will fail to reach all workers, and could take\nuntil the end of April to come into force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More clarity is also needed on the announcement that the government will\nprovide grants to businesses, covering up to 80% wage costs to a limit of\n\u00a32,500 per worker. If these grants reach the businesses that need them, they\ncould prevent millions of redundancies.  But there is no assurance that\nevery business that needs support will receive it: the government needs to\nspecify if the payment is more or less automatic, how it will get into firms\u2019\naccounts quickly and how it will ensure that this cash translates into wages at\nthe end of the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stipulations against layoffs need to be in place<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A further problem with the announced plans is that no stipulations are\nplaced on firms keeping workers on payroll. Financial support for firms must\ncome with conditionality: at a minimum, no workers are to be laid off. \nPeople are losing their jobs right now – the government must act immediately to\nstem the flow. Without this stipulation put in place immediately, firms  – and their payroll systems – will be\nshutting up shop in the intervening period, simply precluding the possibility\nof utilising the government\u2019s \u2018Job Retention Scheme\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The self-employed are left out in the cold and need urgent support<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 5 million people who are self-employed will have taken little\ncomfort from last Friday\u2019s announcements. Greater support is needed. The\nexpansion of an already overburdened Universal Credit system to cover the\nself-employed will make little difference. While a worker on PAYE could receive\nup to \u00a32,500 per month, a self-employed worker might only receive statutory\nsick pay – \u00a394.25 per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is our understanding<\/a> that self-employed workers who have filed tax\nreturns with HMRC in the past could be supported within days<\/em> of a governmental\ndecision. As HMRC already holds the bank account details of these workers, it\nwould simply be a matter of paying cash into their accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Universal Credit will not be able to cope or deliver<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Universal Credit is going to wilt under the pressure of new unemployed\napplicants in the coming weeks and months. Other than a minor improvement in\nlevels of income support, no support has been announced for those outside of\nformal employment, unemployed persons, those receiving personal independence\npayment, or others without a current employer such as university students. For\nthese people, immediate removal of means-testing from current social security\npayments should be introduced as a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We applaud the government for taking advice from the TUC and CBI, and recent measures move very much in the right direction.  But it must go further – time is of the essence.  Economic collapses become increasingly difficult to arrest if they are allowed to continue unabated, and there is a real risk that this recession could turn into a major depression. We call on the government to convene a cross-party task force as a matter of urgency to strengthen the measures announced last Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Allen<\/strong>, Chair, PEF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will Hutton<\/strong>, Principal, Hertford College, University of Oxford<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Weeks<\/strong>, Council Coordinator, PEF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ann Pettifor<\/strong>, Co-Director, PRIME<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ha-Joon Chang<\/strong>, Reader in Economics, University of Cambridge<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Murphy<\/strong>, Professor of Practice in International Political Economy, City University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sue Konzelmann<\/strong>, Reader in Management, Birkbeck College<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natalya Naqvi<\/strong>, Assistant Professor in International Political Economy, London School of Economics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Wren-Lewis<\/strong>, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Oxford<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniela Gabor<\/strong>, Professor of Economics and Macrofinance, University of the West of England<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carolina Alves<\/strong>, Joan Robinson Fellow, Girton College, University of Cambridge<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Jacobs<\/strong>, Professorial Research Fellow, Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This letter was published in The Times and signed by a number of academics and economists, including the above members of the PEF Council. Photo credit: Flick<\/a><\/em>r<\/a>\/Nenad<\/a><\/em> <\/a>Stojkovic<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We welcome the government\u2019s new measures to support workers, particularly the introduction of grants for wage support. But despite the scale of these spending commitments, there is a real danger that millions of workers will not feel their benefit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[209,213],"class_list":["post-7613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-social-security","tag-work-and-pay"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":237,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"pef","display_name":"PEF"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7613"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7618,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7613\/revisions\/7618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}