Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Honest_Man#1]

9 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

 now states that SSP is not funded by the taxpayer. The vast majority of posts are simply criticisms of the people and agencies responsible for responding to the crisis, while offering little in the way of alternative solutions.

Happy to be educated on this if I’m wrong, but in non-Covid scenarios the employer pays SSP (which is what TiG explicitly said), so unsure why this would be funded by the taxpayer?

On the second point, a lot of people have offered solutions - ditch all restrictions as they clearly aren’t working, as evidenced by the lower rate in England than both us and Wales, and get on with living with Covid as a now minor respiratory condition as it’s become. Just because you don’t like the solution given doesn’t mean people haven’t offered one.

[bennett]

10 hours ago, ICTChris said:

 

 

That should encourage the Aberdonians...

[beardy]

WRK with a spot on assessment of this thread.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

Happy to be educated on this if I’m wrong, but in non-Covid scenarios the employer pays SSP (which is what TiG explicitly said), so unsure why this would be funded by the taxpayer?
On the second point, a lot of people have offered solutions - ditch all restrictions as they clearly aren’t working, as evidenced by the lower rate in England than both us and Wales, and get on with living with Covid as a now minor respiratory condition as it’s become. Just because you don’t like the solution given doesn’t mean people haven’t offered one.

To keep it simple - SSP is paid by the employer in the same way as tax is deducted by the employer - they simply act as a conduit for the money to and from the worker to government. And we know where government Gerry their money from.
To be pedantic - SSP is paid by the employer, but it is funded by the taxpayer, so TiG and myself could both be said to have a point - except his is misleading, imho.
This applies, by the way, regardless of Covid.

[beardy]

I'm not sniping I'm clearly saying i agree with what he has posted about the thread.

Nothing more cowardly than sniping from the sides without putting your own opinions on the line bud.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

I don't know Whitey, there's always a place on the thread for a bit of early morning misplaced sanctimony. [emoji38]

Nothing more cowardly than sniping from the sides without putting your own opinions on the line bud.

I made a conscious effort not to single out some of those I referenced in my original post there, yet within seconds...

Nerve. Touched.

Mourning, Oaky. Maybe take a bit of your own advice, and proffer some of your own opinions instead of joining the cheerleading.

[deegee]

39 minutes ago, Dawson Park Boy said:

Wife has been very poorly for the last five days with a severe respiratory infection (not Covid) and is now on antibiotics.

GP tells her that they are seeing a huge increase in this type of disease in comparison to the last 2 years when there was very little. Because of that, the GP surmises that the annual flu jab is much less effective this year against non- Covid flu. Interesting!

Maybe, at the start we should just have let things rip and over the 2 year period the outcome wouldn’t have been much different but, we could have lived (or died) much more ‘normal’ lives.

Best wishes to your wife Dawson. 
 

You make an interesting point about effectiveness (or not) of the current flu vaccine. I’m guessing that due to the lack of flu last year, there is a low base of infection for the scientists to develop this year’s version of vaccine. I really hadn’t considered this at all.

I sense there will need to be an entire reboot of the NHS, funding, staffing, equipment, response and reaction to events like the past two years and probably more relevant to majority of the population will be how the NHS functions with “normal medical and health matters” in the face of a severe event. As always, it’ll come down to funding and best use of funds, which is a thankless task. 

[Elixir]

8 hours ago, Lyle Lanley said:

Scotland’s cultural secretary has pledged that full capacity events will be allowed to return “as soon as possible” once the country emerges from the “acute” phase of the Omicron variant.

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/covid-scotland-full-capacity-events-will-return-in-scotland-as-soon-as-possible-says-angus-robertson-3518094

This guy is meant to be one of the most reliable in the party and he's not got a clue, clearly. Even the Scottish Government will be forced to drop all of their nonsense very soon.

[Abdul_Latif]

25 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

Yeah and he's talking about expanding the vaccine passport scheme as a way of doing it.

Angus, just f**k off.

Yeah that concerningly caught my eye too.

Clearly that’s going to be their measure to keep the bedwetters appeased on Tuesday when they announce everything is open again.

[Rugster]

7 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

To keep it simple - SSP is paid by the employer in the same way as tax is deducted by the employer - they simply act as a conduit for the money to and from the worker to government. And we know where government Gerry their money from.
To be pedantic - SSP is paid by the employer, but it is funded by the taxpayer, so TiG and myself could both be said to have a point - except his is misleading, imho.
This applies, by the way, regardless of Covid.

This is incorrect. SSP is funded by the employer. The scheme where employers claimed it back from the government was abolished in 2014. Now employers can only reclaim ssp for people off for covid reasons. 

[Elixir]

 

[ford prefect]

7 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

To keep it simple - SSP is paid by the employer in the same way as tax is deducted by the employer - they simply act as a conduit for the money to and from the worker to government. And we know where government Gerry their money from.
To be pedantic - SSP is paid by the employer, but it is funded by the taxpayer, so TiG and myself could both be said to have a point - except his is misleading, imho.
This applies, by the way, regardless of Covid.

Why are you repeating this shite? SSP cannot be claimed back by companies.. Maternity pay can. The rate is 103% for small companies and 92% for large. I might be a percentage point out on either but the fact remains that they can't claim back SSP

[Todd_is_God]

Just now, Rugster said:

This is incorrect. SSP is funded by the employer. The scheme where employers claimed it back from the government was abolished in 2014. Now employers can only reclaim ssp for people off for covid reasons. 

I don't understand why WRK has such a bee in his bonnet about me saying this. I don't remember if it was he or not but someone on here got their back right up the last time I pointed that out as well.

[ddfg]

Maybe some of those who see this thread as an echo chamber could offer an opinion on how well or otherwise they consider the Scottish Government have handled the pandemic. 

In particular I would be interested to hear if they think that the First Minister has been honest and truthful in all of her dealings with the Scottish public since March 2020? 

Have the additional layers of protection imposed on Scotland made any significant difference to case numbers as compared to England? 

Have the protections made sense or even been necessary or propotionate? For example did it make sense to close pubs but still allow offsales to continue? 

Have certain business sectors been repeatedly subject of extra protections because they are easy targets whilst more difficult to deal with but much higher risk sectors been largely ignored?

Is the pandemic being used as a cover for years of under investment in the NHS?

 

[Elixir]

10 minutes ago, Abdul_Latif said:

Yeah that concerningly caught my eye too.

Clearly that’s going to be their measure to keep the bedwetters appeased on Tuesday when they announce everything is open again.

They will row back in stages. It won't be a good look for them if they try to extend it to hospitality after the pushback last time, and now having just fucked over their busiest time of year. Surely even the Scottish Government will realise that. Back to where we were and then when England pull the plug on essentially everything in March/April, it'll be the same here but a few weeks later as usual, as they'll have no choice.

[Dawson Park Boy]

18 minutes ago, Rugster said:

This is incorrect. SSP is funded by the employer. The scheme where employers claimed it back from the government was abolished in 2014. Now employers can only reclaim ssp for people off for covid reasons. 

That is correct.

Rules were changed a few years ago when small employers were granted an annual allowance to deduct from NI contributions. On the other hand SSP cannot now be deducted from monthly payments. Quid pro quo.

[djchapsticks]

23 minutes ago, Elixir said:

 

Was coming on to post this very link from the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59909860

This is why the normalisation of 'please restrict what we do for x amount of weeks, because the NHS is struggling' is a very rocky path to set off down.

The acceptance of this as a reasonable measure to take gives free reign for it to be implemented every year regardless of the existence of covid.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

This is incorrect. SSP is funded by the employer. The scheme where employers claimed it back from the government was abolished in 2014. Now employers can only reclaim ssp for people off for covid reasons. 

Why are you repeating this shite? SSP cannot be claimed back by companies.. Maternity pay can. The rate is 103% for small companies and 92% for large. I might be a percentage point out on either but the fact remains that they can't claim back SSP

I don't understand why WRK has such a bee in his bonnet about me saying this. I don't remember if it was he or not but someone on here got their back right up the last time I pointed that out as well.

That is correct.
Rules were changed a few years ago when small employers were granted an annual allowance to deduct from NI contributions. On the other hand SSP cannot now be deducted from monthly payments. Quid pro quo.

Yep, I got that wrong. Apologies. In my defence, that's how it was when I worked in payroll, and for the last couple of decades my employer has been the government. Mea culpa..

[Sergeant Wilson]

26 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I don't understand why WRK has such a bee in his bonnet about me saying this. I don't remember if it was he or not but someone on here got their back right up the last time I pointed that out as well.

I don't know about "back up" but I didn't know the rules had changed and we discussed it a while back.

[Todd_is_God]

8 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Was coming on to post this very link from the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59909860

This is why the normalisation of 'please restrict what we do for x amount of weeks, because the NHS is struggling' is a very rocky path to set off down.

The acceptance of this as a reasonable measure to take gives free reign for it to be implemented every year regardless of the existence of covid.

I posted this a few weeks back. Feels relevant to post it again.