Rishi Sunak announces £500m extension to "plan for jobs"

The Chancellor will unlock more than £500m of fresh funding to help people rejoin the workforce as he attempts to stem the ongoing turmoil from the winter flu pandemic.

The Chancellor will announce a £500 million extension of his "plan for jobs" as the Government tries to prevent unemployment rising after the programme ends.

The Chancellor will announce that the new money will go towards helping jobless workers and those over 50 get back to work, as well as expanding the Kickstart scheme for young people.

But he has resisted increasing all the aid pledged during the pandemic, as the far-reaching scheme comes to an end and the £20 a week increase to Universal Credit is removed.

Those who have progressed further and been granted universal loans benefit from priority help to find a job, too, through the employment assistance programme that will run until the end of the year.

Matthew Fell, policy director at the Confederation of British Industry Confederation, said: "Businesses will welcome the Chancellor's plan to move jobs from one country to another to help jump-start the economy.

He said that the Kickstart program, which helps young people with universal credit, was protecting 11 million jobs and Britain was experiencing "one of the strongest and fastest recoveries of any major economy in the world"