Half of UK firms plan to furlough most of their staff, at a potential cost of £40bn of the Treasury

Around half of Britain’s companies are expecting to furlough most of their staff at a cost of up to £40billion to the Treasury.

The Government initially thought around 10% of companies would take up the job retention scheme, at a cost of around £10billion, but around a fifth of smaller firms plan to furlough all of their staff and 50% are taking up the scheme for some of their employees, the BBC reports. 

With businesses struggling in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the Government introduced a grant to pay 80% of staff wages. 

The Resolution Foundation believes between 8million and 11million staff could furloughed, which would cost the government between £30bn and £40bn, the BBC reports. That represents a figure that is three or four times the original estimate.

Construction firm Mace Group has put 800 staff on furlough.

Chief executive Mark Reynolds told the BBC: ‘What the furlough scheme’s enabled us to do is keep the capacity and capability within our business so that when we come through this, we can then re-deploy our people immediately so we can go back to work.’ 

A report by The Corporate Finance Network of accountants working with nearly 13,000 businesses predicts that 18% of all struggling small companies will not be able to survive the next month due to the UK lockdown.

This could see nearly four million staff lose their jobs in May, it warned, adding that as many as 42% of small firms could go bust if the lockdown lasts for four months or more.

Many lenders are also refusing to give them the business-saving money if they have cash in the bank – or if they do demanding owners put up £100,000 in collateral, usually their homes, if they need to borrow more than £250,000. Some business owners say they have also been rejected if they ask for less than £25,000. 

Scott Littlefield, from SPL Management, a property company based in Poole, told MailOnline: This scheme is not really fit for purpose. 

‘Our bank, Nat West, is virtually non-contactable at the best of times and the staff in branch can only deal with personal banking issues, not business. 

‘They always say to approach your relationship manager although all relationship managers were done away with in 2010

‘Very few people will be able to access this money. Those that do will be bust within short time at the sort of interest rates being mooted.’

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said: ‘Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, I’ve made it clear that hard-working employers and employees should not have to suffer hardship unnecessarily. 

‘Our Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme supports workers and businesses up and down the UK.’

Google searches for ‘Universal Credit’, and ‘furlough’ soar as Britons hunt for information on job losses over ‘coronavirus symptoms’

By Mark Duell 

Online searches for terms including ‘furlough’, ‘Universal Credit’ and ‘how to claim benefits’ have skyrocketed as the coronavirus crisis worsens.

Britons have been using Google to look up the Government’s guidance on helping firms with furloughed workers to keep them employed but without working.  

People suffering financial trouble during the pandemic are also searching ‘Universal Credit’, with nearly a million trying to claim the benefit in the last two weeks.

But searches for ‘coronavirus symptoms’ have fallen recently from a peak in mid-March when the first restrictions on social gatherings were brought in. 

The term ‘furlough’ is more common in US employment law, but has entered into UK parlance in recent days as ministers unveiled their plan to help stricken businesses.

The Coronavirus Job Retention scheme will give people 80 per cent of their usual earnings, meaning they can be furloughed rather than laid off from their firm.

Businesses will be able to pay their employees four-fifths of their regular monthly wage, or £2,500 a month, whichever is lower, until at least June 1.

Meanwhile nearly one million Britons have tried to claim Universal Credit in the last fortnight as the coronavirus pandemic batters the UK economy.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has revealed measures over the last two weeks designed to prop up businesses, but many people have had to turn to the benefits system. 

Around 880,000 people applied for Universal Credit in a two-week period, up from the 100,000 applications normally made during this time frame. 

Universal Credit is a project from the Department for Work and Pensions which has replaced six existing benefits with one monthly payment.

Those benefits are child tax credit, housing benefit, income support, jobseeker’s allowance, employment and support allowance and working tax credit.

Meanwhile the Government is coming under increasing pressure over Covid-19 testing as the UK today experienced its biggest day-on-day rise in deaths so far.

A staggering 2,352 patients had died in hospital after testing positive for the virus as of 5pm yesterday, the Department of Health said, up by 563 from 1,789 the day before.

Downing Street said more than 2,000 NHS staff have been tested for coronavirus as the Government faces intense scrutiny over its policy on testing.

Around 8,000 test per days are currently being carried out across the UK even though ministers previously claimed a target of 10,000 tests per day had been hit.

At present, the focus is on testing patients in hospital, with NHS trusts told earlier in the week they should use up to 15 per cent of any spare testing capacity for staff.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has now scrapped that cap, telling NHS hospital labs to use all spare capacity to test their frontline workers.

A letter from NHS England tells trusts to ‘max out’ lab capacity to test staff, adding this ‘means immediate action please to ‘industrialise’ staff swabbing processes’.

It comes as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace becomes the fourth Cabinet minister to have self-isolated due to Covid-19.

The Government has blamed a global lack of reagents needed to carry out tests, though the chemical industry in the UK suggested there were no shortages.

NHS staff have been left frustrated at having to self-isolate just as they are most needed, because tests are not available to show whether they are clear of the virus.

The row over testing comes as 13-year-old Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab became the youngest victim of Covid-19 in England.

In the US, Donald Trump said the UK’s early approach to tackling the outbreak would have been ‘very catastrophic’ if Boris Johnson had not decided to change tack.