The co-funded payroll scheme, which offers to subsidise staff wages for businesses that have suffered losses as a result of the pandemic, is due to expire on Thursday.
During a recent Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel hearing, Treasury Minister Susie Pinel was questioned over the support on offer to businesses and about a lack of communication with affected firms given the September expiration of the scheme. She was also asked about extending the scheme beyond the end of September, to which she said that the government did not have a ‘bottomless pit of funding’ and could not simply approve a ‘blanket extension’.
However, the government has moved to clarify this and said that the minister was referring to the Fiscal Stimulus Fund rather than the payroll scheme. The Fiscal Stimulus Fund was a £50 million pot designed to support smaller projects, up to a maximum of £5m, that would stimulate the economy. Applications for this fund closed in January with about £20m of the money set aside having been unspent.
A spokesperson for the government confirmed that there had been ‘confusion’ during the hearing and that an announcement on the co-funded payroll scheme was expected later this week.
More than £100m has been spent on the co-funded payroll scheme since it was launched.
