Number of furloughed workers nears 9.0m - HM Treasury

Nearly 9 million UK workers have been furloughed, the latest government figures show, at a cost of £19.6bn.

HM Treasury said on Tuesday that as at midnight on 7 June, 8.9m jobs had been furloughed with £19.6bn claimed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. A week previously, a total of 8.7m workers had been furloughed and £17.5bn claimed.

Under the scheme, the government will pay up to 80% of furloughed workers’ salaries up to a cap of £2,500 per month. It was originally intended to last until the end of July but Chancellor Rishi Sunak has since extended it until the end of October.

A similar scheme has also been introduced for the self-employed. The Self-employed Income Protection Scheme allows workers who have had earnings affected by the pandemic to apply for grants, and as at midnight 7 June, 2.6m claims worth £7.5bn had been submitted, HM Treasury said.

The government also updated the weekly figures for its various business loan schemes on Tuesday. As at 7 June, 93,305 applications had been made for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, 3,581 up on the previous week, with 47,650 facilities approved and a total of £9.56bn lent to date.

The Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme attracted 615 applications, of which 244 were approved and a total of £1.57bn lent. The Bounce Back Loan Scheme received 964,414 applications – nearly 100,000 more than the previous week – with a total of £23.78bn lent.

Mike Conroy, director of commercial finance at UK Finance, the banking industry body, said: “The industry acknowledges the role it must play and is providing an unprecedented level of support, with £35bn approved to 830,000 businesses through government-backed lending schemes in less than three months.

“It is important to remember that any lending provided under government-backed schemes is a debt, not a grant, to firms should carefully consider their ability to repay before applying.”