The numbers came from Romain Schneider, the LSAP social security minister, replying to a parliamentary question from the Green party MPs François Benoy and Charles Margue on 27 May.

The Employers’ Mutual Insurance Scheme (Mutualité des employeurs) paid out €46.7m for March.

Schneider stated:

“The number of employers, employees and applicable periods are likely to evolve further in the coming months, due to the fact that many employers had to carry out the related administrative procedures for the first time and that a good number of human resources services have been overwhelmed by the number of employees concerned.”

Schneider said that 58% of the workers were women, while the figure for self-employed people and farmers was essentially equal.