The key furlough changes coming into effect on July 1

From tomorrow employers will need to pay towards furlough payments.

From July 1, the Government will pay 70% as much as lb2,187.50 and employers will pay another 10%, leaving employees with 80% of the previous salaries, up to the lb2,500 monthly limit.

In August and September, Government pays 60% and employers 20%, as much as exactly the same lb2,500 limit.

Until now, National Insurance and pension contributions happen to be paid by businesses and contains been optional for businesses to pay any extra than the Government's 80% but from July 1 the UK Government have said: "From 1 July 2021, the amount of grant will be reduced and you will be asked to contribute for the cost of your furloughed employees' wages". You can read more about what will take place in Wales when furlough ends here.

Some businesses have been topping up employees' wages over the 80% total and UK Government say that can continue.

The scheme – officially known as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – continues to be extended a number of times and will run until September 30, 2021. It has already cost lb66bn.

There are fears in regards to a significant rise in unemployment when the furlough scheme ends.

The most up to date figures for Wales were released on June 3. They demonstrated that as at April 30, 2021, 131,900 employees in Wales were furloughed under the scheme, a occupy rate of 10%; slightly lower than the take up rate over the UK of 12%.

The number of people claiming furlough between March 31 and April 30 fell by 19% and slightly more women than men were claiming it – 66,500 ladies and 65,400 men.

The council areas with the lowest figures were Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Neath Port Talbot (8%) as much as 15% in Conwy.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on June 14 he didn't expect the scheme to be extended beyond the current September date, something Welsh Government has pushed for.

Economy Minister Vaughan Gething said: "We have consistently pressed the UK Government to keep the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as business and individuals continue to cope with the results of the pandemic. We've been clear and consistent that this scheme, along with other interventions, should not be withdrawn prior to the economy is prepared.

"My Cabinet colleague, the Minister for Finance and native Government, has required an urgent meeting with the Chancellor to build around the commitments made in the Covid Recovery Summit so that all nations interact to support economic recovery. We are urging the Chancellor to possess meaningful discussions about Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and managing volatility around in-year budgets, the Barnett guarantee, the united kingdom Spending Review and Levelling Up of the economy.

"While the growth and development of vaccines has inspired cause for hope and optimism, it is clear that the impacts from the pandemic continues for some time to come, and we will continue to press the united kingdom Government to support individuals and businesses so long as is needed."

The Commons' Public Accounts Committee has today said the dual decisions to decrease basic fraud and error checks in spending Covid-19 loans, and also to support people and companies that it didn't have prior relationship with will result in a "loss of vast amounts of pounds" from the increased chance of fraud and error within the Government's COVID-19 schemes.

While the Commons committee found the Government acted quickly to provide "vital support", it "significantly increased its exposure to fraud and error".

"This really is in part because of the have to work at pace, but additionally because departments decided to relax or modify controls in place to prevent or detect fraud and error, and to provide support to individuals and businesses that government did not have a prior relationship with."

For example, Universal Credit fraud and error rose by lb3.8 billion for an all-time a lot of lb5.5 billion between April 2021 and March 2021.

Chair of the Committee Dame Meg Hillier MP said: "The federal government knows it is losing over lb26 billion a year to fraud and error within the tax and benefits systems, but admits to a different lb25 billion it can't even detect. That's over lb50 billion worth of public services a year distributed to fraudsters by mistakes in payments – prior to the frightening losses accumulating in our Covid-19 spending to date, and from the backdrop of the massive improvement in need.

"Fraud is never acceptable so when so many were suffering because of Covid the federal government must tackle the fraudsters robustly. The committee is definitely concerned about the outcome of departments' own errors – including overpayments which require to become clawed back – which leads to further hardship for that already vulnerable."