Over a third of UK employers plan layoffs for fourth quarter of 2020

More than a third of UK employers are planning on making staff redundant over the next three months, a YouGov poll revealed on Thursday.

The expected redundancies will coincide with the end of the furlough scheme on 31 October, with 37% of employers claiming they would be making cuts in staff before the end of 2020.

According to poll carried out by YouGov, about 60% of the managers surveyed from larger businesses with more than 250 employees said their companies planned to make redundancies this year.

The poll, commissioned by Acas, comes after job cut announcements from some of the UK’s best-known companies.

UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, last week announced that the government would continue to pay up to 22% of the wages of workers on reduced hours under a new job support scheme.

Sunak said it was not sustainable to continue to support jobs as much as in the start of the furlough scheme and pay as much as 80% of the salaries of workers.

Nevertheless, companies can still ask for support including emergency loans, VAT payment deferments, business rates holidays and rebates for sick pay.