Home Business NewsFurlough abusing companies should pay back government grants, says Charlie Mullins

Furlough abusing companies should pay back government grants, says Charlie Mullins

by LLB Reporter
4th Jun 20 5:29 am

Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins OBE believes that any company that has abused the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme should be forced to return the funding to the government if their annual results reveal wages couldโ€™ve been afforded.

Charlie says the need to implement the furlough scheme quickly left it too broad and open to exploitation from companies that could have survived without the need to take government subsidy.

At the end of last month around 8.4 million jobs were covered by the furlough scheme, which is costing the taxpayer ยฃ15bn.

Charlie also believes that the scheme will have left many workers comfortable being furloughed, which will make it harder for them to successfully return to the workplace.

He says: โ€œThe furlough scheme was a god-send for so many businesses, particularly SMEs, but larger companies with the resources to pay their staff could have taken advantage.

โ€œThe pandemic led to the scheme being introduced at breakneck speed with hardly any restrictions, which has left it open to abuse.ย  While furloughing staff will have saved tens of thousands of firms from going to the wall, it has also given big businesses the chance to grab taxpayersโ€™ money when they didnโ€™t need to.

โ€œThese businessesโ€™ next set of annual results should be audited and if itโ€™s found they had the cash reserves the furlough money must be returned to the Treasury.โ€

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