The announcement from Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, yesterday was very brief today and most of the details are still very unclear. The big news is that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is extended from 30th June to 31st October 2020.
He announced that employers will be expected to ‘share the cost’ from August 2020 onwards – currently there are no guidelines what this means. The current scheme will continue as it is until the end of July 2020.
There will be some flexibility around part time furloughing – so perhaps some employees can come back on a part time basis and be furloughed for part time.
As we learn more about the new guidelines from August onwards we will of course share these with you. In the meantime you can rest assured that if you need the scheme for your employees it will be there past the end of June.
More guidance from HMRC is here
We would also like to take this time to remind you that even though the government are encouraging businesses and people back to work – if it is unsafe or not viable for your business you can continue to use the furlough scheme – nobody is being forced back to work if you cannot or do not have the work.
May payroll & claims
The team will be contacting you all individually to ask about your furlough requirements for May so we can run the May payroll and subsequent CJRS claims. Please answer these requests as quickly as you can so we can try to make your claims and hope for you to receive funds before May payroll needs to be paid to your employees.
Even if you think we have the information please bear with us and answer all questions accurately as we need to keep a log of all communication and calculations incase HMRC investigate any claims – amendments CANNOT be made to submitted claims so it is VERY important that we have the correct information BEFORE we run May payroll. If there is anything you are unclear about we are very happy to discuss with you. If you are unsure what your furlough requirements will be at the end of the month we will wait to run your payroll until you do.
As always any questions please let us know.