We pressed the Departments on the schemes’ wider impacts including whether the schemes had contributed to the increasing number of business insolvencies and the increasing level of economic inactivity, given that the number of inactive people over 50 increased by almost 500,000 between October to December 2019 and October to December 2021. The Departments told us that the final evaluations would seek to look at the schemes’ impacts on inactivity within the working age population, but said there was no evidence that showed increasing inactivity was particularly related to the schemes. On insolvency, HMRC said that there had been a legal embargo on creditor insolvencies, which had created some “pent-up pressure”. HMRC considered that it was inevitable there would be an increase in creditor insolvencies following the lifting of the embargo in 7 Q 1; HMRC, CJRS Interim Evaluation, October 2022, section 1.2, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-interim-evaluation (accessed 1 December 2022); and HMRC, SEISS Interim Evaluation, October 2022, section 5.2, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-self-employment- income-support-scheme-interim-evaluation, (accessed 1 December 2022). 8 Q4; HMRC, CJRS Interim Evaluation, October 2022, section 1.2; HMRC, SEISS Interim Evaluation, October 2022, section 5.2 9 Qq 20–22, 45 10 Qq 29–30, 37, 43 11 Qq 30, 37, 44 10 COVID employment support schemes March 2022 and some of this was down to ordinary economic events. The Departments did not say whether their final evaluations would cover the impact of the schemes on the levels of insolvency.12