Addressing the House of Commons earlier yesterday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: ‘The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will be extended by four months until the end of October.’
This extension will mean the government has provided a total of eight months of support to UK workers and businesses during the pandemic.
‘Workers will continue to receive the same level of support of 80% of their current salary, up to £2,500 a month’, said Sunak.
Over 7.5m jobs have been furloughed so far according to the Treasury.
Sunak said: ‘Until the end of July, there will be no changes whatsoever.’
From August to October the scheme will continue for all sectors of the UK but with greater flexibility to support the transition back to work.
He announced that employers using the scheme will be able to bring back furloughed workers part time, with full details to follow by the end of May.
However, Sunak made it clear that employers using the scheme would need to pay a share of the cost of salaries, along with government, if they wanted to bring back employees part-time.
The Chancellor also said that there will be no changes to the scheme until July
More information on how the scheme will work in the coming months is to follow and we will keep you posted of upcoming changes.