What is Furlough?
The Government have introduced a job retention scheme.
This will enable businesses to recover 80% of wage costs for employees on ‘furlough leave’.
Furlough leave is a new class of indefinite leave for employees and the government will reimburse the employer for wage costs.
For more information please read our furlough fact sheet. Please also read our guidance on furlough and annual leave.
We have also produced a template letter for employers to give to their employees who they intend to place on furlough leave.
You can download the template letter here. We also have a template available for employees returning from furlough leave.
Furlough cut off date extended
The government has extended the eligibility start date for furlough to 19th March, it was originally 28th February.
Employers can claim for furloughed employees that were employed and on their PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020. This means that the employee must have been notified to HMRC through an RTI submission notifying payment in respect of that employee on or before 19 March 2020.
Please be aware of when you submit you RTI. RTI submissions are generally done after payroll has been processed so even if an employee was employed before 19 March they may not necessarily be eligible. If they are paid monthly and the employer hadn’t submitted the RTI till the end of the month when they were first paid for example it wouldn’t apply.
Please use this government link for further information. Please also call our advisers for additional support, 01565 626001. We have also prepared a factsheet for you to download, explaining the scheme.
Updates to Furlough and annual leave
We’ve been getting quite a few questions around what happens with holidays for furlough employees. At the moment there is no definitive guidance from the government so the following information is based on HR principles and employment law.
ACAS has produced some guidance which covers holiday and bank holidays, this can be found here.
You can also download our factsheet on holiday pay during furlough.
Information is changing, on what sometimes feels a daily basis. We are constantly trying to keep up to date to provide you with the latest facts. It is important that during this ever-evolving situation that you follow our advice and that of our legal partner rradar.