Almost £25 billion of claims made to the Job Retention and Self-Employment Income Support schemes since they opened

New HMRC statistics also show that claims have been made in respect of more than 11 million employed or self-employed workers up to the end of May 2020

Almost £25 billion of claims have been made to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) since they opened, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced.

In weekly statistics on take-up of the CJRS and SEISS issued today, HMRC reports that - 

• the value of claims made up to midnight on 31 May 2020 was £24.7 billion - the CJRS received £17.5 billion of claims while the SEISS received claims valued at £7.2 billion;
• 8.7 million employed workers have been furloughed by 1.1 million employers in the period from 20 April 2020, when the CJRS launched, to 31 May 2020; and
• 2.5 million claims from self-employed people have been made to the SEISS since it began on 13 May 2020.

For more details, see HMRC coronavirus (COVID-19) statistics from gov.uk

NB - the Scottish Government has announced today that it has awarded grant support from its £34 million Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund to more than 4,000 self-employed people who do not qualify for payments from the SEISS.