Starmer’s Speech today.

sixandahalf

Allira

So it's all very mysterious.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Let me briefly clear up any mystery. The person concerned had a business set up for her by a family member. Perhaps it opened very briefly and then Covid hit. She claimed funds and also did so for her employees. Sadly the system was abused.

That is not the whole story, obviously, and of course you cannot post specific details on social media.
However, it sounds a valid reason to claim from what you say. .

AGAA4

The Tory government didn't give furlough out of the goodness of their hearts they had to do it. They couldn't let families starve where the wage earners couldn't go out to work.
Many people did work during the pandemic so furlough wasn't paid to all.

Well the two biggest employers, NHS and DWP were not furloughed.

Those who were furloughed were extremely fortunate, unfortunately so much of this was abused as checks not able to be done thoroughly.

In order for anyone to claim furlough when self employed, the rules stated that in to qualify and for HMRC to calculate how much to pay, they needed to submit the last three years worth of accounts, which would then have been checked against HMRC records, many people who had started new businesses lost out as did those who consistently “reported” accounts to HMRC which may have not been completely accurate.

I dare say these particular people knew every trick in the book.
Never mind.

Mea Culpa. I can't spell and I make up stories.

Next time people complain about frozen tax allowances remember that Sunak did it to recoup unprecedented government spending during the pandemic.

Hansard: Spring Budget

Our response to coronavirus has been fair, with the poorest households benefiting the most from our interventions, and our approach to fixing the public finances will be fair too … our first step is to freeze personal tax thresholds.

We will also tackle fraud in our Covid schemes, with £100 million to set up a new HMRC taskforce of around 1,000 investigators …

That first was an odd thing to say as we know that freezing tax allowances affects the poorest people. He seemed to be saying - we have given you some help and now we are going to take it back.

The second was an admission that there was a huge amount of abuse of Covid schemes such that it was deemed to need 1,000 more HMRC staff to tackle.

Cossy

AGAA4

The Tory government didn't give furlough out of the goodness of their hearts they had to do it. They couldn't let families starve where the wage earners couldn't go out to work.
Many people did work during the pandemic so furlough wasn't paid to all.

Well the two biggest employers, NHS and DWP were not furloughed.

Those who were furloughed were extremely fortunate, unfortunately so much of this was abused as checks not able to be done thoroughly.

As far as I remember they got a good pay rise plus two bonus payments.

Working in the public sector they should expect to carry on working to be fair.

Primrose53

Cossy

AGAA4

The Tory government didn't give furlough out of the goodness of their hearts they had to do it. They couldn't let families starve where the wage earners couldn't go out to work.
Many people did work during the pandemic so furlough wasn't paid to all.

Well the two biggest employers, NHS and DWP were not furloughed.

Those who were furloughed were extremely fortunate, unfortunately so much of this was abused as checks not able to be done thoroughly.

As far as I remember they got a good pay rise plus two bonus payments.

Working in the public sector they should expect to carry on working to be fair.

Perhaps it was danger money, Primrose. At least for the NHS workers whose lives were most at risk from confused scientific advice and exposure to covid patients with little or no proper PPE. IIRC there was quite a high degree of covid deaths among NHS workers on the front line.

Regarding furlough/furlow - AI says according to lexicographer Susie Dent the correct spelling is “furlough” which means a leave of absence or a temporary lay off from work. “Furlow” is considered a phonetic misspelling.

Primrose53

Regarding furlough/furlow - AI says according to lexicographer Susie Dent the correct spelling is “furlough” which means a leave of absence or a temporary lay off from work. “Furlow” is considered a phonetic misspelling.

Good. I love Susie Dent. She's so clear in her explanations on Countdown.

I was taking the spelling used by the government at the time on all official documentation, etc. I like to make sure I've got it right!

And not at any point did I criticise a poster's spelling. In fact I merely said, I didn't think I'd seen the word furlow.

Primrose do you think the money compensated for the hard work, long hours and danger nurses, including my DD, were in while working during the pandemic. They saw colleagues become ill with COVID and some died. They did 'expect' to work through it and do not deserve your glib response.

AGAA4

Primrose do you think the money compensated for the hard work, long hours and danger nurses, including my DD, were in while working during the pandemic. They saw colleagues become ill with COVID and some died. They did 'expect' to work through it and do not deserve your glib response.

I agree, AGAA4, it's what I was trying to say earlier.

There somehow seemed to be something rather 'entitled' about the obvious implication that bonuses and pay rises were unnecessary because they were only doing their jobs.

There somehow seemed to be something rather 'entitled' about the obvious implication that bonuses and pay rises were unnecessary because they were only doing their jobs.

Definitely! I also thought the Conservative Government made a serious mistake in not acknowledging their service with a decent pay rise as clapping did not reward them enough.

Graphite

Next time people complain about frozen tax allowances remember that Sunak did it to recoup unprecedented government spending during the pandemic.

Hansard: Spring Budget

Our response to coronavirus has been fair, with the poorest households benefiting the most from our interventions, and our approach to fixing the public finances will be fair too … our first step is to freeze personal tax thresholds.

We will also tackle fraud in our Covid schemes, with £100 million to set up a new HMRC taskforce of around 1,000 investigators …

That first was an odd thing to say as we know that freezing tax allowances affects the poorest people. He seemed to be saying - we have given you some help and now we are going to take it back.

The second was an admission that there was a huge amount of abuse of Covid schemes such that it was deemed to need 1,000 more HMRC staff to tackle.

There was also a task force set up to investigate all the fraudulent claims made to Universal Credit as all checks were done over the phone (I was working in a job centre throughout much of lockdown) my daughter and many many others were recruited after lockdown to investigate and attempt to recoup the vast amount of fraud committed, it was a thankless task and very little was recouped in the great scheme of things.

Trying to do right thing, in entirely the wrong way, and sadly many of us involved in the setting up and processing of these claims said so at the time!

icanhandthemback

^There somehow seemed to be something rather 'entitled' about the obvious implication that bonuses and pay rises were unnecessary because they were only doing their jobs.^

Definitely! I also thought the Conservative Government made a serious mistake in not acknowledging their service with a decent pay rise as clapping did not reward them enough.

Nurses and doctors put their very lives on the line, some didn’t return home to stay with their families for weeks on end, PPE wasn’t available for many and they didn’t know what they were doing.

DWP staff working out of offices worked long hours, with no overtime and in open plan offices together with some additional space between desks . Masks not worn in work as all work was completed via phone.

Money could not compensate for losses of life and those poor nurses/doctors and other NHS staff experienced things those outside of these roles cannot even imagine and actually being exposed day and night to the situations they were put in is not what they are paid to do!! Ditto all the other people unable to be furloughed, teachers/deliver staff/rubbish collectors/shop staff to name just a few.

Cossy I agree I had family, midwives and nurses who faced those daily dangers.
And police who still had to get 'up close and personal' with people they were arresting, some who deliberately coughed in their faces claiming to have Covid. They like teachers/deliver staff/rubbish collectors/shop staff to name just a few. didn't get pay awards afterwards and aren't the high earners to start with. We really learned who were 'essential workers' during Covid, who we really needed to turn up, sadly we seemed to forget once the world re-opened.

Oh Primrose Starmer does not use his trusty pen and note pad that much now they gave him an Autocue to read off …. He is a total tool …..