The Government’s Extended Furlough Scheme – How it Affects Your Business

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on 31 October, additional financial support is being made available to individuals and businesses, including an extension to the furlough scheme, which will now remain open until December. 

Vicky Beattie of our Employment Team provide a useful summary of the latest changes

• Employers of any size are eligible for the extended furlough scheme, which will continue for a further month.
• Employees can be furloughed full time or can come back to work on a part time basis.
• All employers with a UK bank account and UK PAYE schemes can claim the grant. The employer does not need to have previously used the furlough scheme.
• Employees need to have been on an employer’s PAYE payroll by 23:59 30 October 2020 to be eligible for extended furlough. This means a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment for that employee to HMRC must have been made on or before 30th October 2020.
• Employees can be on any type of contract to be eligible.
• Employers will be able to agree any working arrangements with employees they are claiming for.
• Employers can claim the grant for the hours their employees are not working, calculated by reference to their usual hours worked in a claim period. Such calculations will be broadly similar to the current furlough scheme.
• In order to claim the grant for furloughed hours, employers will need to report and claim for a minimum period of 7 consecutive calendar days.
• Employers will need to report hours worked and the usual hours an employee would be expected to work in a claim period.
• For worked hours, employees will be paid by their employer subject to their employment contract and employers will be responsible for paying the tax and NICs due on those amounts.
• For hours not worked by the employee, the government will pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500. Employers will pay for the NICs and pension contributions. The grant must be paid to the employee in full.
• Employers can choose to top up employee wages above the scheme grant at their own expense if they wish.

The Job Support Scheme (JSS), which was due to commence on 1 November, has been postponed until the extended furlough scheme ends.  

It is expected that further guidance and details, including how to claim under the extended furlough scheme through an updated claims service, will be provided shortly.

If you have any queries in relation to this or any employment issue, please contact Vicky Beattie by email or telephone – vicky@bbslaw.co.uk 0161 832 2500.