Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of people on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme who (a) will retain their job role and (b) may be made redundant after the closure of that scheme.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was set up to support employers to retain their employees through the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the scheme has succeeded in supporting 11.7 million jobs across the UK with employer claims totalling £69.3 billion, aiding businesses and protecting livelihoods. After running continuously for nineteen months, the scheme closed on 30 September 2021.

As set out in the Plan for Jobs Progress Update, published on 13 September 2021, the economy and labour market are now in a stronger position than they were last autumn. The latest data show that the Government’s Plan for Jobs is working across all parts of the UK, with just 1.3 million people on furlough on 31 August 2021, and online job vacancy levels 35 per cent above February 2020 levels. At the start of the crisis, it was feared that unemployment would reach twelve per cent, or even higher. The figure is now less than half of that, meaning almost two million fewer people are out of work than had been feared, while the headline unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent has now fallen for seven consecutive months. The ONS has also found that of all workers who had ever been furloughed, more than nine in ten were still in work in the three months to June 2021. This is a similar proportion as for workers who had never been furloughed, meaning that there was no statistically significant difference in employment rates between those furloughed and those who had never been furloughed.