LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government will extend its emergency coronavirus wage subsidy scheme to ensure workers who are temporarily laid off during a new England-wide lockdown receive 80% of their pay, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday.
Britain introduced the 80% wage subsidy scheme in March and it had been due to expire on Saturday to be replaced with more targeted support.
The scheme supported 8.9 million jobs at its peak, and had been forecast to cost around 52 billion pounds ($67.28 billion) over its eight-month lifespan.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton, Writing by William Schomberg, Editing by Alistair Smout)
