Across the South West 654,000 workers are at home on furlough under the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, new statistics show.
Since the scheme was launched in March, as lockdown was announced, 206,000 people have been furloughed in Devon and Cornwall, including 30,400 in Plymouth and 16,500 in Torbay, with 52,400 on furlough in Bristol and 50,000 in the Bournemouth area, 22,100 in Bath, and 28,000 in Swindon.
Across the rest of Devon, including 13,800 in Exeter, a total of 90,600 workers are now sitting at home under the scheme, and in Cornwall the figure is 68,500.
Meanwhile, another 224,000 self-employed people are receiving payments across the South West under the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) because they are prevented from working during the lockdown.
They are being paid a total of £665million by the Government under the scheme. An average of £2,968 per claimant.
In Plymouth 8,200 self-employed people are making claims, while in Torbay the number is 5,900. Across Devon, including 4,000 in Exeter, the total is 37,600. Cornwall has 29,000 self-employed workers being paid not to work.
In Bristol the figure is 17,400, in Bath it is 6,700, in Bournemouth 15,000 self-employed people are being assisted, and in Swindon it is 7,200.
Since the launch of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and SEISS, the Government has now supported the wages of 189,200 people in Devon and 97,500 in Cornwall. That means 286,700 people are being supported by either CJRS or SEISS in those two counties alone.
Across the greater South West, 878,800 are now being supported by the two schemes.
The schemes were announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, and are run by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), as part of a package of support measures for businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown.
The idea of the furlough scheme is to help employers who have been severely affected by coronavirus to retain their employees and protect the UK economy.
An announcement was made on May 12 that the scheme will run until the end of October to continue the support for jobs and businesses as people return to work. But it is being tapered with firms expected to start contributing from July.
The SEISS was rolled out ahead of schedule in May and has financially supported 51,700 self-employed people in Devon who have been adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
It has paid grants worth a total of £149.3million up to May 31. Two days earlier, the Chancellor announced an extension to this scheme.
Those eligible to claim the SEISS grant will be able to claim a second and final grant in August of up to £6,750.
Mr Sunak said: “The UK Government is doing everything we can to protect jobs and businesses in Devon and across the UK during the crisis. Our unprecedented job retention and self-employment support schemes haves supported the livelihoods of millions and will help ensure our recovery is as swift as possible.”
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Nationally, more than 6.4million jobs were furloughed in England, with more than 628,000 jobs furloughed in Scotland, 316,500 in Wales and nearly 212,000 in Northern Ireland.
The number of self-employed individuals making claims is more than 2.3million across the UK – just more than 2million claims in England, totalling almost £6billion; 146,000 in Scotland, totalling £425million; 102,000 claims for £273million in Wales; and 69,000 claims for £198million in Northern Ireland.
Some 70% of those potentially eligible for support through the self-employment scheme made a claim, with the average value of claim amounting to £2,900.
The total UK working population was around 33.14 million at the start of the year.
With high streets deserted during lockdown, wholesalers and retailers have furloughed the highest number of employees, covering 1.6million jobs.
Many of those will be returning to work as restrictions on non-essential shops lift on Monday, June 15.
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The next biggest sector using the scheme was accommodation and food service, where employers have furloughed 1.4 million people.
As the economy opens up again, from the end of this month companies will not be able to claim support for staff through the scheme unless those workers were already on furlough on June 10.
The CJRS scheme will continue to support jobs until the end of October, with flexible part-time furloughing beginning in July to support businesses as the economy is carefully reopened.
Eligible self-employed people will be able to claim a second and final grant in August.But there are fears that as the level of support changes, redundancies and people being forced to claim Universal Credit will grow.
