Chancellor Rishi Sunak's decision to extend the furlough scheme, unveiled as part of his budget yesterday, is a welcome but necessary move.
However, the fact that it will continue until the end of September, along with other support packages, shows that we are still some way off from the full return of business and the much longed for normality.
It also indicates a degree of caution, signalling that the autumn could see Covid challenges, perhaps from new variants.
So, despite the vaccine rollout and the road map to reopening the economy, the British government is clearly keeping its options open.
Businesses which have been severely impacted by the pandemic will be reassured by the continuation of this vital safety net.
It has come at an enormous cost to public finances but has been crucial to ensuring that as many jobs and businesses as possible survive this economic shock and have a chance to recover when the lockdown ends.
Mr Sunak also extended the £20 per week uplift in universal credit by a further six months. This is an important lifeline for individuals and families who have been struggling during the past year.
Even so, there will be people who have been plunged into dire circumstances as a result of the pandemic, forced to rely on food parcels to feed themselves and their children.
Yesterday, this paper highlighted the work of west Belfast man Paul Doherty who, along with 30-plus volunteers, runs the Foodstock project from the former St Matthias' Church on the Glen Road.
The team provides food for around 400 people a week across west Belfast, from the very elderly to the very young.
This is just one of a number of projects across the north providing the most basic of life's necessities to people who have fallen into real hardship.
It is difficult to imagine how those who already are in food poverty, skipping meals so their children can eat, could possibly cope if the universal uplift had been ended.
There is no doubt that dealing with coronavirus has cost the government eye-watering sums and the chancellor's decision to freeze income tax thresholds is a bid to claw back some of that money.
But as the economy hopefully begins to bounce back, we need to focus on those struggling to get by and to vow that this is a society where people should not have to rely on food banks to feed their families.
