Month: July 2020

Sunak’s opening remarks

The chancellor says people are anxious about losing their job and unemployment rising. “We’re not just going to accept this,” he adds.

Sunak says he is announcing a “plan for jobs” to protect, create and support employment.

He says at the start of the crisis the government provided £160bn to cushion the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown.

Britain is entering the second phase of the government’s economic response, he says. The job responding to the crisis has “only just begun”, he adds.

The chancellor says the government will put the public finances back on a “sustainable footing”, but he suggests this should be in future as Britain rebuilds.

Furlough scheme

The furlough scheme will wind down flexibly and gradually until the end of October, Sunak confirms.

“Leaving the furlough scheme open forever gives people false hope that it will always be possible to return to the jobs they had before,” says the chancellor.

A jobs retention bonus will help to wind down the scheme: businesses will be paid £1,000 to retain furloughed staff. This would cost the Treasury more than £9bn if every job furloughed is protected, Sunak says.

Kickstart scheme

Sunak announces the “kickstart” job creation scheme for young people. The government will pay the wages of new young employees for six months.

There will be an initial £2bn to fund hundreds of thousands of jobs. Sunak says there will be no cap on the number of places available.

Training and jobs

Jobcentre work coach numbers will be doubled, the chancellor says.

Apprenticeships will be supported by bonuses for companies. Firms will get a payment of £2,000 for each apprentice they take on. Companies taking on apprentices aged over 25 will be given £1,500.

Green investment

Sunak says the government wants a “green recovery with concern for our environment at its heart”.

As previously announced, the government will provide £3bn for decarbonising housing and public buildings.

Vouchers worth £5,000 and up to £10,000 for poorer families will be made available out of a £2bn pot to retrofit homes with insulation, helping to cut carbon emissions.

£1bn will be allocated to make public buildings greener.

Stamp duty

The chancellor announces he will cut stamp duty to reinvigorate the housing market.

The threshold for stamp duty will increase from £125,000 to £500,000. The cut will be temporary, running until 31 March 2021, and will take effect immediately.

VAT cut for hospitality

Sunak says 2 million people work in the hospitality sector and that it has been one of the hardest hit by Covid-19, warranting further support from the government.

VAT will be cut from the current rate of 20% to 5% for the next six months on food, accommodation and attractions. The cut lasts from Wednesday 8 July until 12 January 2021.

Sunak says the move is a £4bn catalyst, benefiting more than 150,000 businesses and consumers.

Discounts on eating out

The chancellor announces an “eat out to help out discount” to encourage consumers to spend at restaurants and cafes.

Meals eaten at any participating businesses, from Mondays to Wednesdays in August, will be 50% off up to a maximum discount of £10 per head for everyone, including children.

Businesses will be able to register through a website launching on Monday. Firms can claim money back to have money in their bank accounts within five working days.

Sunak says 1.8 million people work in the industry, whose jobs can be supported. “We can all eat out to help out,” he adds.

Fraudsters are increasingly carrying out sophisticated phone scams which can involve them threatening victims with immediate arrest if they don’t pay £1,000s on the spot – and bogus calls in some cases appear to come from HMRC’s telephone number. If you receive an urgent demand to pay tax over the phone, beware.

HM Revenue & Customs revealed earlier this month that it received more than 60,000 reports of scam calls in the six months leading up to January 2019 – an increase of 360% compared to the previous six months.

And one particularly alarming scam sees fraudsters ring and tell the victim that they will be arrested for tax fraud, unless they instantly hand over payment details and pay a fee – sometimes in excess of £4,000.

Those who’ve been contacted by scammers have described the calls as “very convincing”.  MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis tweeted about the issue after a distressed victim told him they’d lost £4,000:

Martin Lewis@MartinSLewis

IMPORTANT WARNING PLS SHARE! Beware a spate of SCAM HMRC calls eg “there’s warrant for ur arrest,” “you’re being done for fraud!” so “we need money today!” They can spoof it so it comes from HMRC’s actual number. Never pay. Call HMRC from ANOTHER phone if u want to check

.8:19 AM · Mar 14, 20193.2K4.6K people are Tweeting about this

But HMRC says it will never call you up out of the blue and tell you that you owe money, and will only ever call asking for payment on a debt that you are already aware of.

How does the ‘HMRC’ phone scam work?

This isn’t a new issue – we’ve long warned about this kind of scam call, and fraudsters pretending to be from HMRC use many different tactics to extort money from innocent people. But HMRC says it’s seen a sharp rise in bogus calls over the past six months, and one scam that’s being widely reported at the moment involves scammers ringing you and telling you that you’re suspected of tax fraud and are about to be arrested.

MoneySavers have told us that the fraudster will then ask their victim to confirm details, such as their name and postcode, before telling them how much they ‘owe’. If challenged, fraudsters then begin to give elaborate threats, for example claiming that they are dispatching police officers to arrest you within minutes, or that they will freeze your passport – neither of which, of course, they can do.

Victims are then pressured into giving their card details, which enable the scammers to take money from their account.

To make matters worse, calls often come from a number which appears similar to an HMRC one, and in some cases victims have said scammers have ‘cloned’ an HMRC number so that HMRC’s actual number appears on the screen. This is known as ‘number spoofing’ and is something Action Fraud – the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud – has previously warned about.

How to protect yourself from scam calls

HMRC has issued the following guidance to people to stop them getting caught out:

1. Recognise the signs. Genuine organisations like banks and HMRC will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, password or bank details.

2. Stay safe. Don’t give out private information, reply to text messages, download attachments or click on links in emails you weren’t expecting.

3. Take action. Forward suspicious emails and details of calls claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and texts to 60599, or contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 if you suffer financial loss.

If you think you’ve received a bogus HMRC call, email or text, you can check it against the examples shown in this HMRC guide. The Gov.uk website also has more info on how to avoid and report scams and recognise genuine HMRC contact, and we’ve more help in our 30+ Ways to Stop Scams guide.

If you do lose money to one of these scams, it may be possible to get money back from your bank. New rules mean that when someone has been tricked into making a payment themselves, they may be able to get cash back.

What does HMRC say?

A HMRC spokesperson said: “We will only ever call you asking for payment on a debt that you are already aware of, either having received a letter about it, or after you’ve told us you owe some tax, for example through a self-assessment return.

“We work relentlessly to close scams down and make people aware of them. HMRC has a trusted brand which can be abused by fraudsters to trick people trying to fulfil their legal obligations. We have invested heavily in protecting taxpayers against scams and anyone who suffers financial loss as a result of one should inform Action Fraud.”