UK furlough scheme extended by four months until October

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the UK’s furlough scheme will be extended from June until October as the country looks to cautiously reopen.

From August, the government will ask firms to “share with the government the cost of paying salaries,” Sunak said.

He previously warned that the scheme isn’t sustainable at its current scale but said its cut-off point would be gradual.

Announced in March, The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme sees the government pay up to 80 percent of the salaries of furloughed employees, up to 2,500 pounds a month.

Around 7.5 million people are currently using the wage subsidy scheme, up from 6.3 million last week.

It is currently costing around 14 billion pounds a month, more than the government anticipated when it was first launched.

It has so far protected around 7.5 million jobs across almost 1 million companies.

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