Last week the Bank of England predicted that the UK economy will shrink by 14% this year, which would represent the deepest recession in more than three centuries.
For many people, such economic statistics don’t mean much. But the real world consequences will be severe: someone, somewhere, will forced to take a significant financial hit. The question is: who should this be?
Right now, it’s clear who is being asked to shoulder the burden of the crisis. 7.5 million people have now been furloughed under the government’s Job Retention Scheme, many of whom have experienced a drop in income of 20%. Others have not been so lucky: a wave of redundancies has already led to more than 1.8 million new people applying for universal credit, which in many cases will provide an income of just £94 per week.
