UK Furlough scheme has been extended until October, with part-time working possible from July.
There are currently, 7.5 million Brits are having up to 80% of their wages paid by the taxpayer, under the UK furlough scheme at an estimated cost of £8billion per month.
In Germany, the short-time work scheme, called Kurzarbeit, is paying more than 10million employees and in France, the chomage partial is paying 11.3million people.
The rising numbers of European workers being paid by their respective Governments is, without a doubt, going to add to the pressure on the European economies. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, schemes are going to have to extend and taper in order to avoid a wave of mass redundancies and rising unemployment figures.
In the UK, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak will be extending the furlough scheme until October, saying workers and businesses need to be “weaned” off the programme rather than an immediate 'cliff edge' stop.
The think-tank, The Resolution Foundation says some sectors will need support for longer than others and suggested the scheme should run until the end of the year for retail and hospitality.
HM Revenue & Customs reports that by midnight on 3 May, 800,000 employers had applied to use the scheme, allowing them to put staff on furlough.
The scheme is very costly, current estimates ranging from £10bn to £14bn per month. By the end of the year, the Government will have spent £100bn on wages. The concern is how that debt will be repaid in the long term and whether we will see yet more years of austerity or tax rises?