THE UK scheme to pay wages of workers on leave because of coronavirus will be extended to October, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has aid.

Mr Sunak confirmed that employees will continue to receive 80% of their monthly wages up to £2,500.

But he said the government will ask companies to “start sharing” the cost of the scheme from August.

A quarter of the workforce, some 7.5 million people, are now covered by the scheme, which has cost £14bn a month.

The chancellor said that from August, the scheme would continue for all sectors and regions of the country but with greater flexibility to support the transition back to work, he said.

Employers currently using the scheme will then be able to bring furloughed employees back part-time.
Cliff edge

Mr Sunak said: “I’m extending the scheme because I won’t give up on the people who rely on it.

“Our message today is simple: we stood behind Britain’s workers and businesses as we came into this crisis, and we will stand behind them as we come through the other side.”

There has been growing concern about the cost of the scheme, and last week Mr Sunak said it could not continue in its current form.

However, he was under pressure to announce changes soon to avoid a so-called “cliff edge” in which employers begin mass redundancies.

Any company seeking to cut more than 100 job must run a 45-day consultation, meaning 18 May was the last date employers could start this process before the furlough scheme ended in June.

The chancellor rejected suggestions some people might get “addicted” to furlough if it was extended.

“Nobody who is on the furlough scheme wants to be on this scheme,” the chancellor said. “People up and down this country believe in the dignity of their work, going to work, providing for their families, it’s not their fault their business has been asked to close or asked to stay at home.

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said she had only learned of the changes “in the last few seconds” and would examine them “very, very carefully”.
But she added that it was “critically important” that workers who had to continue on furlough “are not penalised for that choice”.