Furlough payments during Covid created thousands of work-shy people, claim senior bankers

GENEROUS furlough payments during Covid created hundreds of thousands of work-shy people, senior bankers claim.

The no-strings-attached payouts broke the link between hard toil and higher wages, says the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).

It said staff in Britain, the US and Canada — among the most generous furlough payers — were showing reluctance to return to offices whereas employees in most countries had gone back.

There were 191,000 fewer workers in Britain than before the pandemic, June figures show.

The UK spent £70billion on 11.7million temporarily out-of-work employees.

BIS said: “There has been this apparent change in the attitude towards work and the way we think about work and the labour market.”

BIS said the phenomenon risks fuelling inflation as firms offer higher wages to retain motivated staff.

The Institute for Employment Studies, meanwhile, said many people had used furlough to part-fund their early retirement.

Its director Tony Wilson said the effect was “a consequence of the design of the furlough scheme.”

Mr Wilson criticised then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s pay-outs as “broad-based” and “passive”.

He added: “We’re looking at much higher rates of furlough, particularly by the end (of the scheme), amongst people over 50.

“That was also the group where we saw higher exits from work.”