MOD3327 - UK Government's Response to Unemployment During the Pandemic

This presentation examines the UK government's response to potential high levels of unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights that approximately 24% of the UK workforce was at risk, leading to a surge in unemployment benefit claims. The government implemented several key measures to mitigate this crisis, including the Job Retention Scheme, Kickstart Scheme, Eat Out to Help Out Scheme, Furlough Scheme, and Job Support Scheme. These initiatives aimed to support businesses and employees, preventing mass unemployment during the unprecedented economic challenges posed by the pandemic. The presentation references academic sources and government resources to provide a comprehensive overview of these interventions.

Economic For business

What did the UK government do to deal with the potential high levels
of unemployment that could have arisen during the pandemic
Around 7.6 million occupations or 24 per cent of workforce of UK are at risk due to the pandemic of Covid-19
(Hensher, 2020). The start of pandemic saw huge enhancement in number of people that claim out of work benefit
that was far more than increase in number of people counted as unemployed. To deal with potential high
unemployment levels that could have arisen in pandemic, government of UK did mentioned things:
 Job retention scheme
 Kickstart scheme
 Eat Out Help Out Scheme
 Furlough Scheme
 Job support scheme

References
 Hensher, M., 2020. Covid-19, unemployment, and health: time for deeper solutions?. Bmj. 371.
 Burrell, K. and Schweyher, M., 2019. Conditional citizens and hostile environments: Polish migrants in pre-Brexit
Britain. Geoforum, 106, pp.193-201.
 Schmidt, M. G., 2019. The Politics of Labour Market Policy Structural and Political Determinants of Rates of
Unemployment in Industrial Nations. In Managing mixed economies (pp. 4-53). de Gruyter.
 Kickstart Scheme. 2020. [Online]. Available through: < https://www.techuk.org/resource/the-kickstart-scheme.html>
 Number of employments furloughed. 2021. [Online]. Available through: < https://ifs.org.uk/publications/15644>