£40 billion furlough bill?

Get straight to the good stuff every day with the Multiply Minute; a lightning-quick round-up of the money news and how it affects you.

Wages cost the government

The government’s job retention scheme, which pays businesses a grant to cover 80% of workers' wages, might cost more than expected. Analysis by think tank the Resolution Foundation found that up to 11 million people could be “furloughed”. That would cost the treasury £30 to £40 billion over three months - roughly what we spend in a year on funding the police.

Tesco sales are up

Tesco saw its sales surge by almost a third (paywall) during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, as shoppers rushed to stock up. The supermarket said it’s taken on 45,000 extra staff in recent weeks to cope with demand and cover staff who are off sick.

Business loan bottleneck

Just 2,000 companies have managed to get their hands on a loan through the government’s coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS). So far, banks have received 52,710 phone enquiries and 256,483 online enquiries from businesses needing loans. Why the hold up? Companies say they’re having to jump through too many hoops - so the scheme was overhauled on Thursday to try and make it easier. Time will tell if it works.

Help for car finance

Lenders are offering interest freezes and payment holidays to try and help customers who are finding their car finance unaffordable. They want to try and avoid people needing to hand back their cars. Nine out of 10 new cars are paid for using finance, so the car market relies on customers being able to make repayments.