The coronavirus pandemic has hit a lot of people as businesses have been forced to shut due to the UK lockdown. And the forced closure for some places has, sadly, become permanent leaving many more people unemployed.
This in turn has seen employment benefit soar in Greater Manchester since the lockdown began back in March, with new figures from the Office for National Statistics revealing that 120,730 people in the area were claiming unemployment benefit this April, the first full month of the nationwide restrictions.
This means that an extra 46,205 people were added to the system in a single month with the number up by a dramatic 62 per cent from 74,525 claimants in March.