UK furlough scheme spending exceeds 20 billion pounds

Britain's finance ministry said on Tuesday it had spent more than 20 billion pounds ($25 billion) on a furlough program that is supporting 9.1 million jobs, as well as lending over 38 billion pounds to companies.

In a weekly update, the Treasury said claims under its Job Retention Scheme - which pays 80% of salary costs for furloughed staff - had risen to 20.8 billion pounds from 19.6 billion pounds the week before.

Banks had lent small businesses 26.34 billion pounds of 100% state-backed loans, while larger firms had received 10.11 billion pounds from the government's main lending scheme, with the biggest companies getting an extra 1.77 billion pounds. ($1 = 0.7913 pounds)