• Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Furlough Didn’t Save Millions of Jobs – It Led to a Welfare Crisis

by Will Jones
23 March 2024 11:00 AM

Furlough didn’t save millions of jobs and its true costs are only now becoming clear, says Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph, as he responds to the latest Rishi Sunak promo advert. Here’s an excerpt.

The latest Rishi Sunak advert paints him as quite the hero. “14 million jobs saved” it declares, in Hollywood poster style. And underneath: “Furlough announced, four years ago today.” SuperSunak is shown in three action-man guises: at his desk, in trademark hoodie. Then walking, with a look of urgent purpose. Finally, wearing a face mask, tie tucked into his shirt, ready to save a life or two. It recalls happier times: when he was more popular than Churchill, hailed as a financial miracle-worker who had saved the country from the worst economic impact of Covid.

At the time, the real-life Sunak was nowhere near as confident. He didn’t sleep the night before furlough launched, feeling physically sick at the sheer scale of his gamble. It would pay 80% of employees’ wages: might such generosity end up creating welfare dependency, making things worse long-term? Would it just prop up jobs that were never coming back, spending a fortune to delay economic rejuvenation? The test, as he knew, would come years later.

In the end, Britain has turned out to be one of the few countries in the world whose workforce is still smaller than it was before the pandemic. Furlough was a powerful drug initially designed for three months. It ended up being used on and off for a year and a half, with £70 billion given to 11.7 million people. Companies, not all of which actually existed, were helped with loans. That was the short-term cost. We’re only now starting to see the longer-term effect. 

So it’s nonsense to say – as the Conservatives are now doing – that Sunak “saved” 14 million jobs. Most who took furlough would have been safe anyway, as we saw from places without such a safety net. Yes, far more jobs would have been lost – at least for a while. But an even greater number would have probably come back later and at better salary levels. This has been the experience of the United States, whose economy is now roaring.

In a leading article, the Telegraph backs up Nelson’s analysis, saying “furlough could well be the policy most responsible for the mess the country is now in”:

Four years ago this week, Rishi Sunak announced one of the most expensive decisions a British Government has ever taken: the introduction of furlough. Millions of people would be paid to do nothing, with 80% of their salaries funded by other taxpayers. Such ‘free’ money was instantly popular, and the newly-installed Chancellor was hailed as the saviour of the nation at a time of heightened uncertainty due to the rapidly-advancing Covid pandemic. Few thought to question what the longer-term consequences would be.

They are now. Furlough could well be the policy most responsible for the mess the country is now in. The billions spent on the scheme still have to be repaid, limiting the Government’s fiscal room for manoeuvre. It damaged the country’s culture of work, buttressing an assumption that people will always be bailed out, even in circumstances where they might once have been expected to stand on their own two feet.

Furlough probably also lengthened the period the country stayed in lockdown. Cushioning workers from the ruinous economic effects of the restrictions meant there was little public pressure to return to normality, unlike in countries with better-designed support schemes. The proportion of people in employment in the U.K. is below its pre-pandemic level.

Both articles are worth reading in full.

Tags: COVID-19Economic crisisFurloughLockdownRishi SunakWelfareWelfare crisis

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

How HR Turned Workplaces Woke

Next Post

The Harm of College Vaccine Mandates

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

19 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
2 years ago

It’s like the civil service, local government and the EU. These people (yes these people) are rewarded for building empires, overspending on budgets and creating waste. We have seen how the civil service do want they want, not what they have been directed to do, or what their mission demands, a good case in point being the miss-named Border Force. Meanwhile the taxpayer is landed with an ever growing tax bill and longer waits for treatment or appointments. The social contract is well and truly broken. Beyond repair.

88
-1
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago

Re Stop Press, I have never understood why the NHS has not set up its own locum services, if necessary paying locum staff exactly the same as the private sector but ploughing the profits back into the NHS. It would at the very least drive the private services to drop prices or disappear from the market place.

23
0
Dr G
Dr G
2 years ago

Does hark back to “Yes, Minister”.
The perfect hospital with no patients.
A prescient series in so many ways.

8
0
RTSC
RTSC
2 years ago

This is a consequence of the Equality Act. The Government could stop it tomorrow by repealing, or at the very least, amending the Act.

But it won’t. It’s terrified of the Twitterati, the BBC and the assorted woke virtue-signallers who infest the Establishment.

12
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour’s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada’s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries

by Richard Eldred
9 May 2025
1

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

Sun-Dimming Quango has £800 Million of Taxpayer Money to Blow – and a CEO on £450k

8 May 2025

UK “Shafted” by US Trade Deal

8 May 2025

News Round-Up

9 May 2025

The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia

8 May 2025

What Does David Lammy Mean by a State?

9 May 2025

Sun-Dimming Quango has £800 Million of Taxpayer Money to Blow – and a CEO on £450k

28

The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia

24

News Round-Up

21

What Does Renaud Camus Actually Believe? Part Two: Is He Really a Conspiracy Theorist?

35

UK “Shafted” by US Trade Deal

12

Nature Paper Claims to Pin Liability for ‘Climate Damages’ on Oil Companies

9 May 2025

What Does David Lammy Mean by a State?

9 May 2025

In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour’s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada’s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries

9 May 2025

News Round-Up

9 May 2025

The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia

8 May 2025

POSTS BY DATE

March 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Feb   Apr »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Register

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences