‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme saves diners £800k

The ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme was announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, on Wednesday, July 8.

The scheme, which ran from August 3rd to August 31st allowed diners to claim a 50 per cent discount on food or non-alcoholic drinks to eat or drink in at participating restaurants, up to a maximum of £10 per customer on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday throughout August.

The scheme was designed to encourage consumers back to restaurants as COVID-19 related lockdown restrictions eased.

Following the scheme’s closure, statistics released by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) revealed that diners in the Upper Bann area claimed a total discount of £842,000.

Across the Upper Bann area, a total of 114 restaurants registered for the scheme and a total of 159,000 meals were purchased using the scheme.

The average discount per meal in the Upper Bann area was £5.28, less than the Northern Ireland average.

Across Northern Ireland the average discount per meal was £5.79 according to the figures released by HMRC.

In total, 2,207 restaurants across Northern Ireland registered for the scheme with 2,789,000 meals claimed for via the scheme, saving diners a total of £16,146,000.