![]() As part of the Restart scheme, long-term unemployed Universal Credit claimants are provided with intensive job searching support under Job Entry Targeted Support. The Kickstart scheme provides job placements for people under 25: it has provided 217,000 placements with 100,000 applicants subsequently finding employment. When the £20 a week uplift ended there were 5.7m people on Universal Credit.įollowing periods of lockdown, the government initiated different types of schemes to support people find work and encourage economic recovery. Of the 5m self-employed workers in the UK, around 2.9m received at least one of the five SEISS grants. Over the course of CJRS, 11.7m jobs were supported, out of a total of around 28.7m jobs eligible for furlough. These programmes were wide-ranging in their eligibility and benefited lots of people. A £20 a week uplift in Universal Credit supported the lowest-paid and unemployed. The bulk of support for workers was provided through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS, or ‘furlough’) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). What support was provided for individuals?Īn unprecedented package of support for individuals was announced at the start of the crisis in March 2020. Other programmes introduced during the pandemic but targeted at recovery include the Kickstart scheme, the Recovery Loan Scheme and the Job Entry Targeted Support programme, and are set to continue to March, June and September 2022 respectively. The final support measures to end – as part of the government’s ‘ Living with Covid’ strategy – were the payments for self-isolation and the Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme, in February and March 2022 respectively. Support programmes were gradually phased out over the summer and early autumn of 2021 as public restrictions were lifted and the economy reopened. Almost two thirds of the total was spent in 2020/21 (£126bn), with forecasts for 2021/22 set at £44bn. Most of this extra spending went to individuals, at £100bn, with the remaining £69bn spent on business support schemes. ![]() The latest figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR, the UK’s official economic forecaster) estimate that government Covid support measures totalled £169bn since 2020. ![]() How much did the government spend in total on support for individuals and businesses? Other explainers document the support for wages and support for the unemployed in the UK, and internationally. This explainer lays out the main economic support schemes provided by the UK government during the pandemic, how much they cost and who they benefited. These policies were continued, sometimes in slightly revised form, during subsequent Covid waves in the autumn and winter of 2020–21.Īlthough funding came from the UK government, with the devolved administrations receiving a share according to the Barnett formula, many business support schemes were administered by local authorities, which could provide some discretion on how to distribute resources. Following the first national lockdown in March 2020, the UK and devolved governments implemented a series of financial measures to mitigate the impact of restrictions. The pandemic caused major social and economic disruption.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |