Derry and Strabane posted lowest furlough uptake rate

It had the second lowest number of furloughed employments at the end of September.

Chris Rothwell, a researcher at Stormont’s Research and Information Service, has produced a briefing paper that provides an overview of the economic implications of COVID-19.

He found that at September 30 in Derry City and Strabane District Council the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) uptake rate was 5.9 per cent, which was the joint lowest in the north alongside Fermanagh and Omagh. Derry and Strabane had the second lowest number of furloughed employments (3,500) at the same point in time. That was out of 59,600 eligible employments under the CJRS scheme.

Mr. Rothwell looked at the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and found that the uptake rate in Derry and Strabane on September 30 was 73.7% which was below average. There were 11,200 claims with a total value of £27,100,000. He also looked at the COVID Restrictions Business Support Scheme (CRBSS) which was introduced in October to help support businesses affected by Executive restriction that came into effect that month. At December 8 there had been 242 applications in Derry and Strabane that had resulted in pay outs of £1,038,000. This accounted for 8.6%of the £12,083,400 paid out across the north.