Primark set to reject Treasury’s furlough bonus payment
Primark will reportedly reject a £30m bonus handout unveiled in the Chancellor’s summer statement.
The retailer has said it will not claim the £1,000 payment for every worker it brings back from furlough, according to the Sunday Times.
Last night gambling firm William Hill also reportedly indicated it would also reject the furlough bonuses worth up to £7m.
The “job retention bonus” programme to encourage companies to bring back workers was among a raft of measures designed to kickstart the economy. In his summer statement, Rishi Sunak said employers who take back furloughed workers until the end of January will receive a handout.
Big companies that have furloughed staff – 30,000 in Primark’s case – will also receive the money even if they are not struggling financially.
Primark was forced to close all of its stores when lockdown measures were introduced in March. It resulted in a loss of £650m worth of sales every month. Its owner, Associated British Foods, revealed a £284m hit for unsold stock while stores were shut.
Primark’s decision to reject government support will pile pressure on other big firms not to take the windfall payments at the expense of the taxpayers.
Sunak’s scheme has already faced criticism for its “one size fits all” approach. The boss of HMRC, Jim Harra, wrote to Sunak raising concerns about the scheme.
He said: “It has proved difficult to establish a counterfactual for this scheme, which depends on the overall cost of the scheme and the number of extra jobs it would protect, both of which are currently highly uncertain.”