From 16-19 May 2020, New Starter Justice conducted a survey to illuminate the issues affecting new starters. Today we can release the headline stats. Use them as you wish but please credit us. (1/13) #NewStarterJustice

Two months ago, around 1m people were about to start a new full-time job, expecting to earn £1,501 or more. Today, most expect to run out of money for food and bills within 3 months. How? (2/13) #NewStarterJustice

There are an estimated 1.6m—2.3m left out of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. These are people who started—or were due to start—a job as lockdown hit. (3/13) #NewStarterJustice

These aren’t people who chose to change jobs in the middle of a pandemic. These are people who signed contracts and even started jobs before lockdown was even announced. (4/13) #NewStarterJustice

The majority of these people fall into the 25-34 age bracket—but the spread across all age groups is fairly even. Not consistent with a lot of media reports that Covid19 has just affected young people’s employment. (5/13) #NewStarterJustice

Hospitality has the most people excluded from the Job Retention Scheme. This could mean a slow recovery post-lockdown, unless the Scheme is made more inclusive. Also affected are construction, retail, tourism and automotive (6/13) #NewStarterJustice

A job retention scheme that doesn’t retain jobs hits the whole economy—but it hits individuals the hardest. 22% of new starters currently have 0 household income. 47% of households are left with less than half their usual income. (7/13) #NewStarterJustice

“But when lockdown ends, this problem will be fixed…right?” Wrong. 37.2% of our sample have lost their jobs because they couldn’t be furloughed. Employers are withdrawing these jobs because they have no government support to retain them. (8/13) #NewStarterJustice

It’s hardest on the individuals. But businesses need a Job Retention Scheme that works, too. 40% of new starter employers have 50 or fewer staff. They can’t afford to lose employees. (9/13) #NewStarterJustice

The Government has proposed a lot of solutions to this loophole: Universal Credit, a new cut-off date, and the suggestion that new starters ask to be rehired and furloughed by old employers. They don’t work—here are the stats to prove it. (10/13) #NewStarterJustice

So what would work? Proof. We have signed contracts. March payslips. We can prove that we attended interviews, received job offers, filled out online applications. In any other circumstance, our proof would be accepted—so why not now? (11/13) #NewStarterJustice

We just want the same thing as the millions of other employees receiving furlough—financial security. Our employers want it for us, too—84.1% would furlough us if they could. (12/13) #NewStarterJustice

@RishiSunak—we have evidence of our employment. We now have evidence of what two months of exclusion from the Job Retention Scheme looks like. Today we ask you—how much more evidence do you need? (13/13) #NewStarterJustice