{"id":88474,"date":"2021-02-02T13:57:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T13:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=88474"},"modified":"2021-02-02T13:57:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T13:57:08","slug":"covid-income-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/hr-skills-news\/covid-income-support\/88474\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid income support grants causing site skills shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"

An increased level of self-employed construction workers claiming Covid income support grants are creating skills shortages across the sector<\/h2>\n

Contractor bodies have become so concerned about the looming skills shortage<\/a> that they are lobbying MPs for a reform of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).<\/p>\n

Latest government figures show 659,000 self-employed construction workers claimed \u00a32.3bn in grants during last December alone.<\/p>\n

The Association of Brickwork Contractors<\/a> has been contacted by a number of firms worried about the situation.<\/p>\n

Association chief executive officer Eve Livett said the Covid income support scheme<\/a> was crucial during the first lockdown but has been open to abuse since as the industry continued working during subsequent shutdowns.<\/p>\n

\u2018Counterproductive for our industry\u2019<\/h3>\n

Livett said: \u201cThese grant payments appear to have been designed to be very accessible with criteria and benchmarks for approval set very low.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst this was key to ensuring financial stability for workers in the initial lockdown period, this is now demonstrably counterproductive for our industry and it is felt that a shift in strategy is required in order to mitigate the issues arising from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the trade body for brickwork contractors, we have had reports of workers successfully applying for grants despite demand for work being unaffected, with the workers themselves continuing to work throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n

One brickwork contractor added: \u201cThese payments have caused a situation where workers don\u2019t need to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome foreign workers have taken the money and disappeared back home with no plans to return and it is causing catastrophic labour shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n

The drylining sector is also being hit hard by skills shortages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Boris money\u2019 causing site skills shortages<\/h3>\n

One specialist commented: \u201cWe usually have a large pool of labour-only subcontractors we can call on but a lot are telling us they have enough \u2018Boris Money\u2019 to keep them going for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome European workers have also gone home while others are picking and choosing when and what work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The average claim in December was just under \u00a33,500.<\/p>\n

A union source added: \u201cThere are certainly issues with some European workers not coming back post-Brexit<\/a> and with the Covid travel restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut most people in construction want to work and earn their money keeping the sites going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An increased level of self-employed construction workers claiming Covid income support grants are creating skills shortages across the sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[285],"tags":[676,54592,283,592,660],"stakeholder_rel_tag":[],"contributor_rel_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-88474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-hr-skills-news","7":"tag-construction","8":"tag-coronavirus","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-skills","11":"tag-skills-shortage"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCovid income support grants causing site skills shortages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An increased level of self-employed 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