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Thousands more were furloughed in the area at the end of September – but campaigners say millions across the UK have been excluded from the schemes and ignored by the Chancellor’s Spending Review.
New figures from HM Revenue and Customs show 35,400 claims were made for either of the Government's two self-employment income support scheme grants before they closed towards the end of October – worth £88.9 million.
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Hide AdThe first was taken-up by 80 per cent of eligible claimants before applications closed in July, and the second, which shut in October, had a take-up rate of 73 per cent.
The third grant, which opens for claims on November 30, will provide a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of three months' average monthly trading profits, capped at £7,500 – with a fourth to follow from February.
The figures show 17,600 jobs were furloughed in Sheffield as of the end of September through the job retention scheme – 7 per cent of all eligible jobs, down from 9 per cent a month previously.
Across the UK, almost 5m people applied for the two initial SEISS grants, while at its peak in May, almost 9m jobs were furloughed through the job retention scheme, although this has fallen to just under 2.5m in the most recent data.
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Hide AdHowever, ExcludedUK, a group created to campaign for the rights of those left out of the Covid-19 support measures, claim as many as 3m are lacking support.
Among these are the newly self-employed, those unable to claim SEISS support because more than half of their income is from employment, and anyone denied furlough pay – including zero-hour contract workers.
A spokesman said Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spending Review was the ideal opportunity to help end the increasingly "severe hardship" people are facing.
He said: “The impacts of these exclusions are profoundly damaging – to lives, livelihoods and the economy, making recovery and growth all the more challenging.
“Failure to address the situation will only lead to these impacts becoming more acute, amid considerable uncertainty and a long recovery process ahead.”
Answering questions after his address to the House of Commons, Mr Sunak denied it was accurate to describe those people as excluded, saying 1.5m are not majority self-employed.
He said: “It is reasonable to assume they will benefit from the furlough scheme, and that is how the majority of their earnings come in.”
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Hide Ad“That principle was supported at the time by every trade association I spoke to when designing the scheme.”
He said Universal Credit and other support measures would be ‘significant’ in making up the difference.