Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Rishi Sunak is set to announce this week that small businesses will have to cover anything between 20-30 per cent of the cost of furlough.
Meaning that small businesses will have to fork out £833 per month to keep each staff member on furlough if they’re claiming the full £2,500 amount.
And small business owners will also have to pick up the cost of national insurance contributions on top, on average 5 per cent of wages, says the Times.
According to accountancy firm Wellers, this would cost an additional £245.73 per month, bringing the monthly total for each furloughed employee to over £1,000 a month.
However, the government will still cover the cost of pension contributions. Previously, Bloomberg reported that the Treasury was considering asking businesses to cover both national insurance and pensions.
>See also: Rishi Sunak extends job retention furlough scheme to October
What’s being floated today goes much further.
Unemployment scrapheap
The fear is that many small businesses, especially those in leisure and hospitality, will be forced to throw staff onto the unemployment scrapheap, as the Treasury effectively ends the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) in August, not October.
The hospitality sector, which will be the very last sector to reopen,

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