U.K. Support for 12.1 Million Jobs Adds to Pressure on Sunak
U.K. Support for 12.1 Million Jobs Adds to Pressure on Sunak
(Bloomberg) --
The number of jobs supported by the U.K. government’s pandemic support exceeds 12 million, highlighting the scale of the task facing Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak as he prepares to announce his latest economic strategy on Wednesday.
While the rate of increase in the use of the furloughing program and the self-employed plan has slowed since the height of the crisis, the two programs are now supporting 12.1 million jobs at a cost of more than 35 billion pounds ($44 billion).
The furlough program, which currently pays 80% of a worker’s wage, is due to begin to wind down from August, with employers gradually taking on more of the burden. Sunak is expected to use the speech on Wednesday to say how he’ll protect jobs as support is withdrawn.
Separate data showed the the government has paid out 45 billion pounds to more than 1 million firms across its three lending programs.
| Plan | Usage | Cost (Pounds) |
|---|---|---|
| Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme | 9.4 million jobs | 27.4 billion |
| Self-employment Income Support | 2.7 million claims | 7.7 billion |
| Bounce Back Loan Scheme | 1,013,410 loans | 30.93 billion |
| Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme | 53,536 loans | 11.49 billion |
| Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme | 394 loans | 2.58 billion |
Two million owner-managers left out of the available rescue packages will have their interests represented by a new All-Party Parliamentary Group launching on Tuesday. It will lobby the government on behalf of proprietors of limited companies that pay themselves via dividends.
“We have been able to put in place measures unprecedented in scale and speed,” Sunak told the House of Commons on Tuesday. “That meant that we did have to make some difficult decisions in order to implement those policies.”
Campaign group ExcludedUK called for Sunak to act urgently to widen the support measures.
“The government’s justifications regarding these exclusions -- complexity, implementing at pace, combating fraud -- are simply not acceptable,” said the group’s founder Sonali Joshi.
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