Pace of furloughing slows as cost of job support measures tops £33bn
The number of furloughed workers in the UK rose to 9.3m last week, while the cost of the government’s job support measures topped £33bn, new figures showed.
Some 100,000 additional workers were furloughed in the week to 28 June, according to data from HMRC.
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This represents a slowing in the rate of increase compared to the previous week, when an extra 200,000 workers were placed on furlough.
The cost of the government’s job retention scheme — which pays 80 per cent of salary costs for furloughed staff — increased to £25.5bn compared to £22.9bn the week before, in the biggest weekly jump since the start of June.
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The number of claims made for the government’s self employment income support scheme remained steady at 2.6m, with the value of claims increasing to £7.7bn.
The total cost of all government coronavirus support schemes including business loans is approaching £80bn, a rise of roughly £5bn on the week before, HMRC data showed.