People Group CEO, Terry Hillier, appeared on Radio 4’s Money Box programme at the weekend to discuss the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the furloughing and paying of thousands of workers.

BBC Radio 4’s Daniel Whitworth spoke to both Terry Hillier and Julia Kermode, FCSA, to understand why the scheme is so complicated, what businesses should be doing to ensure their contractors are paid and why other payroll (umbrella) companies haven’t been prepared to take the risk.

Even without absolute clarification, since the 3rd of April People Group has paid their contractors their full entitlement, rather than 80% of the National Minimum Wage. This has cost over £1M prior to receiving funding from the CJRS grant. People Group has been inundated with positive feedback and thanks from hundreds of their contractors who otherwise would have been left in a terrible financial position.

Terry commented: “We did this because it’s a longer game – we knew we had to help our contractors and our agencies and our hirers. It was as simple as that. It is risk and reward. We do the right thing, even when there are some grey areas, but we help people survive. When we come out the other side, we’ll still have clients wanting to work with us. And the bottom line is I want to ensure our contractors have sufficient finance to survive.”

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