MARK Drakeford has made a new request for support from the UK Government for workers in Wales ahead of Friday's circuit breaker lockdown.

An earlier request for help was refused by chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Mr Drakeford has now asked the chancellor to waive eligibility criteria from the Job Retention Scheme to help Welsh businesses.

The first minister announced the "fire break" lockdown at a press conference on Monday.

At the same time he revealed that he had requested Welsh businesses be granted early access to the new Job Support Scheme.

Mr Drakeford said: "We know that businesses will need this support quickly.

"The window will open in the first week of the fire break and we will work to get that money allocated as quickly as we can to those businesses who need it.

"I understand the difficulty this poses for Welsh businesses. It is why I wrote to the chancellor on Friday to ask him to give Welsh businesses early access to the expanded Job Support Scheme from Friday of this week.

"That would remove the need for businesses to juggle the Job Retention Scheme and the Job Support Scheme during this fire break period.

"Given the urgency, we have offered to pay the extra costs involved in that from Welsh Government funds to help businesses retain staff."

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However, that request was refused by chancellor Rishi Sunak.

The first minister has now asked Mr Sunak to waive the eligibility requirements of the UK Government’s furlough scheme to support workers ahead of Wales’ “fire break” lockdown.

Mr Drakeford said in a letter he is concerned many laid-off staff will not fulfil the eligibility criteria to claim from the earlier job retention scheme, which is that they must have been furloughed for at least three weeks prior to June 30.

“Employers with no income will be faced with the difficult decision of paying all of the wage costs of these employees or making them redundant,” he said.

“It makes no sense from the point of view of the UK Exchequer to have to meet the possible long-term costs of paying out-of-work benefits to these individuals for the sake of one week’s support on the JRS.

“Will you therefore agree in these exceptional circumstances to waive the requirement for employees for whom JRS is claimed for this period to have been on furlough for at least three weeks prior to June 30?”