What is it?
Government grants will cover 80% of the salary of retained workers, up to a total of £2,500 a month. The scheme, open to any employer in the country, will cover the cost of wages backdated to March 1st and will be open before the end of April for at least 3 months. The employer can choose to fund the differences between the grant and an employee’s salary but does not have to.
Eligibility: You must have:
- created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before 28 February 2020. The employee(s) must be on your PAYE payroll before or on before 28 February 2020
- enrolled for PAYE online – this can take up to 10 days
- a UK bank account
Government guidance on employees you can claim for can be found here
What do I need to do to access it?
You will need to:
- Designate affected employees as furloughed workers (when staff members are required to take an unpaid leave of absence) and notify your employees of this change – changing the status of employees remains subject to existing employment law and, depending on the employment contract, may be subject to negotiation. Workers should not undertake work while they are ‘furloughed’.
- Submit information to HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and their earnings through a new online portal – open now! The following information is now available on gov.uk:
Find more information in our Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme FAQs developed with our colleagues at Quest.
