UK news industry furlough claims fall below £500,000 in final month of full scheme

The news industry’s total combined furlough claims from the Government fell below £500,000 in June ahead of the scheme winding down.

June was the last month the Government paid the full amount of 80% of furloughed employees’ wages. From 1 July, firms using the job retention scheme had to start contributing 10% of wages claimed.

In June the industry’s collective claim totalled between £70,007.32 and £495,000 (the Government data is published only in banded ranges).

Since monthly data began being published in December, the highest range was in February, with claims between £765,018.25 and £1.89m. The total would have been higher earlier in the pandemic as companies calculated their strategies, but legislation did not yet allow HMRC to publish who was claiming money from the Government.

These totals exclude companies that have paid back all cash they claimed from the scheme in the past six months, such as The Economist.

In June no UK news media company claimed more than £25,000 from the Government.

The highest claims were at Archant, Newsquest, KM Media Group, City AM, Highland News and Media, Iliffe Media Publishing and Time Out England which all received between £10,001 and £25,000.

For Archant and Time Out England this was a drop from the £25,001 to £50,000 claimed in May.

The highest monthly claim since December was Archant in February, with claims between £250,001 to £500,000.

Top four regional publishers' claims December to June:

Archant has claimed the most in total since December - between £585,007 and £1.28m. This followed by Midland News Association on £425,006.01 to £1.01m.

The figures show that JPI Media, which stopped claiming furlough cash in April, received between £400,000 and £1m in the four months from December. JPI owner National World revealed last week it had received £4m in total from the UK government to pay furloughed staff since the start of the pandemic.