After the collective trauma of 2020, many businesses will at last be heaving a sigh of relief that the year is fast approaching its end, with the prospect of Christmas and New Year punctuating the gloom. For many, though, the respite will be temporary. The UK Government’s furlough scheme, which has protected more than nine million jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic by paying 80% of wages for time not worked is due to end in March 2021. “Some employers may be making decisions about their existing staff as early as January, as the Government has indicated it will most likely expect them to start making a bigger contribution to the scheme as they did in September and October and sadly we have to anticipate a high number of redundancies next year,” says Employment Law Partner Sally-Anne Anderson at property, legal and financial firm Aberdein Considine.