Economy Update Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Economy Update

Peter Gibson Excerpts
Thursday 5th November 2020

(3 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Rishi Sunak Portrait Rishi Sunak
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I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. What I can tell him is that the new CJRS date for eligibility will be 30 October, which means that those who were notified to HMRC at any point up to that time will be eligible to be furloughed under the new scheme and, indeed, those who were let go before the announcement of the plans in September can also be rehired and put back on the scheme.

The details of that are in the guidance, which will be published imminently.

Peter Gibson Portrait Peter Gibson (Darlington) (Con) [V]
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I thank my right hon. Friend on behalf of the 1,900 self-employed people of Darlington who have benefited from the self-employed income scheme and who will welcome his announcement today, but may I urge him to ensure that this money gets out of the door as quickly as possible, particularly with Christmas just around the corner?

Rishi Sunak Portrait Rishi Sunak
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I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. Those are three-month grants for the self-employed. The system will open in November so that grants can be paid in December, in time for Christmas, as he says. As he knows, that builds on our significant support for the self-employed. More than 3 million people are eligible for that support, which is now worth more than £14 billion. Today’s announcement will mean an additional £7 billion of support to those people over the Christmas period.