At the height of Covid pandemic, less than 25% of the working population received salary support from the government.

Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan has released the information after a request from Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew).

Mr Cannan’s Tywnald response said that the data was recorded at four week intervals as the payments were made for four weeks as a time, rather than it being recorded on a monthly basis.

The first period showed that from March 2 to March 29, 10,412 people (23.23% of the working population) were receiving salary support. Between March 30 and April 26, this rose to 10,931 people (24.38%).

Between April 27 and May 24, the number of people receiving salary support had fallen to 9,658 (21.54%). By this time, the harshest lockdown restrictions were being relaxed and more people were returning to work.

The next period, May 25 to June 21, saw a drop down to 7,466 (16.65%) and June 22 to July 19 this fell sharply again down to 4,505 (10.05%). The latest figures for July 20 to August 18, show that only 1,311 (2.92%) people were still receiving salary support.

Mr Cannan also revealed how many people had been receiving Manx Earnings Replacement Allowance payments, however these were recorded in monthly payments.

In May 1,804 people (4.02% of the working population) were receiving MERA, this rose to 1,999 (4.46%) in May and 2,073 (4.62%) in June. These figures began to fall in July to 1,865 (416%) people, 1,118 (249%) in August and 927 (2.07%) people in September up to Friday September 11.

The Treasury Minister added that since April 6, 2,631 people, 5.87% of the working population had been paid MERA.

The island’s unemployment level is being somewhat shielded by MERA as people who would otherwise be claiming job seekers’ allowance are not doing so. However, Mr Cannan has said he expects a truer reflection of the situation once MERA payments end.