"The latest government figures showing that almost 4 million people were furloughed in December 2020 shows the sheer scale of the support provided by the government.
"Now that we have entered a further lockdown we can expect those figures to increase. With the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) extended to the end of April 2021, many employers will be relying on the government support to see them through the difficult months ahead. The amendment to the rules of the CJRS meaning employers can no longer claim for employees who are serving notice will deter some employers from making redundancies as they simply cannot afford the notice pay, which means many final decisions will be postponed until April.
"News of various vaccinations provided the much-needed light at the end of the tunnel at the end of 2020. It is hoped that as the mass vaccination programme is in full swing, employers will delay making redundancies and continue to use the CJRS until the end of April when restrictions may be reduced as the impact of the vaccine takes full effect and the work may pick up."
"Now that we have entered a further lockdown we can expect those figures to increase. With the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) extended to the end of April 2021, many employers will be relying on the government support to see them through the difficult months ahead. The amendment to the rules of the CJRS meaning employers can no longer claim for employees who are serving notice will deter some employers from making redundancies as they simply cannot afford the notice pay, which means many final decisions will be postponed until April.
"News of various vaccinations provided the much-needed light at the end of the tunnel at the end of 2020. It is hoped that as the mass vaccination programme is in full swing, employers will delay making redundancies and continue to use the CJRS until the end of April when restrictions may be reduced as the impact of the vaccine takes full effect and the work may pick up."