Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) “Furlough scheme” Update

The Furlough Scheme has been extended until 31^st March 2021. As of 1^st November 2020, Employers can claim 80% of an employee’s usual salary for hours not worked up to a maximum of £2500 a month. This percentage however may be reviewed for February and March 2021.

The 30^th November 2020 is the last day employers can submit or change claims for periods ending on or before 31^st October 2020 and claims for Furlough pay for days in November 2020 must by submitted by no later than 14^th December 2020.

For periods of furlough from 1^st November 2020 onwards, employers can claim for employees who were employed by 30^th October 2020 so long as the relevant PAYE RTI submission was made to HMRC between 20^th March 2020 and 30^th October 2020.

Points to note:

• Any agreement between employee/employer to furlough must be recorded in writing and kept for 5 years.
• Employees returning from maternity leave need to give the statutory eight weeks’ notice to end maternity leave early in order to be furloughed.
• Employers can claim even if they have not previously claimed under the scheme prior to 30^th October 2020
• Employees who were included within payroll on 23^rd September 2020 and who were made redundant or stopped working for the employer after that date can be reemployed and claimed for.
• Employers can claim for employees on any type of employment contract including full-time, part-time, agency, flexible or zero-hour contracts.
• Fixed-term contract employees can be claimed for and even have their contract extended or renewed. Even if the contract expired on or after 23^rd September 2020, they can be re-employed and claimed for so long as a PAYE RTI submission was made for that employee to HMRC between 20^th March 2020 and 30^th October 2020.
• If an employee has more than one job, they can be furloughed from each role and the monthly cap of £2500 applies to each employer individually.
• An employer can continue to claim for a furloughed employee who is serving a statutory notice period (within a November 2020 claim period) however furlough pay cannot be used to subsidise redundancy payments. For claim periods starting on or after 1^st December 2020, an employer cannot claim for days during which the furloughed employee was serving a contractual or statutory notice period for the employee.

What help can I get if I am self-employed?

The extended self-employment income support scheme provides further financial support to the self-employed in the form of two additional grants. These are available for three month stretches, covering November 2020- January 2021 and February 2021- April 2021. You must be prepared to declare than you will continue to trade or that you are unable to trade due to coronavirus restrictions.

Hannah Durham

hd@sdmlegal.co.uk