98 percent increase in Leeds Universal Credit claimants since March, meeting hears

A full meeting of Leeds City Council heard how the number of unemployed Universal Credit claimants stood at more than 42,000, with warnings the numbers are one month behind, so could be even higher.

The authority’s executive member for employment Jonathan Pryor claimed the Government had waited until “hours before” the furlough scheme was due to end before extending it, leading to needless job losses.

A full meeting of the council was told that the number of people claiming some form of Universal Credit in the Leeds local authority area – both employed and unemployed – stood at 70,127 at the beginning of October – an increase of 98 percent since March. The revised figures of the number of people claiming UC in Leeds who were unemployed in September 2020 was 42,884 – itself an increase of 81 percent since March.

Coun Pryor added: “The last-minute extension of the furlough scheme will have led directly to people losing their jobs which they otherwise may not have done.

“Employers are faced with a constantly changing situation. Once they understand what the riles meant for them and their employees, they were faced with a national lockdown.

“Leeds has been faced with four different sets of rules over a six-week period.

“That is causing havoc in a lot of businesses with their employees.

“At the same time, literally hours before the job retention scheme was due to end, it was announced it would be extended to December 2.

“Another change when the Chancellor announced the job retention scheme would continue until March next year.

“I am not denying that furlough is a good scheme, and the government was right to extend it. But what is deplorable is the constant last-minute chopping and changing, meaning businesses can’t effectively plan for the future.”

He added redundancy notices from employers who would have been affected by the ending of the furlough scheme, would have been sent out weeks before the extension was announced.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which was launched at the start of the pandemic by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, will lead to employees receiving 80 percent of their salary for hours not worked.

The furlough scheme was initially supposed end in the Autumn, but was extended until December 2, before Government last week announced it was going further.

Mr Sunak told the House of Commons on Thursday, November 5: “We can announce today that the furlough scheme will not be extended for one month, it will be extended until the end of March. The Government will continue to help pay people’s wages up to 80 percent of the normal amount. All employers will have to pay for hours not worked is the cost of employer NICs and pension contributions.

“We will review the policy in January to decide whether economic circumstances are improving enough to ask employers to contribute more.”