Latest information on Furlough Job Retention Scheme (JRS)

Yesterday the government released further information on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, surrounding payroll dates and eligibility. Our experts explain the impact of the changes below and note the likely complexities for employers running annual and quarterly payrolls.

When can I make my first claim?

The scheme is due to go live on 20 April 2020, with first payments expected to be made 10 days later. Future claims are expected to be paid within four to six days.

Following the initial backdated claims, claims can be made no more than 14 days before payrolls are run, but will be accepted for the different pay periods.

Employees you can claim for

To allow new starters on weekly payrolls to be included in the claim, HMRC has revised the qualifying date from 28 February to 19 March 2020. To make a claim for an employee on furlough, they must have been on your PAYE payroll and included on an RTI return submitted to HMRC by 19 March 2020. So for monthly or 4 weekly payrolls, a new employee cannot be added after your last pay date in March (say 1 March) in order to include them in the claim.

Employees that were employed as of 28 February 2020 and on payroll (i.e. notified to HMRC on an RTI submission on or before 28 February) and were made redundant or stopped working for the employer after that and prior to 19 March 2020, can also qualify for the scheme if the employer re-employs them and puts them on furlough.

Who can claim?

Any entity with a UK payroll can apply, including businesses, charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities.

However, you must have the following to be eligible to make a claim:

• created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before 19 March 2020
• enrolled for PAYE online via the HMRC website
• a UK bank account

How much you can claim?

Companies will be able to claim for 80% of the employee’s gross salary (capped at £2,500 per month), as per their last pay period prior to 19 March 2020. This applies to both full and part-time workers. You can also claim for the associated employer’s NI costs and the minimum statutory employer pension contributions on the 80% pay (3% of gross pay above the qualifying earnings threshold – £512 per month in March 2020).

Annual and quarterly run payrolls

There is currently no clear guidance on this, but it is likely to be provided when the portal goes live on 20 April. It appears likely that you can only make a furlough claim for periods in which you have run a payroll and sent an RTI return to HMRC. Therefore if you only run your payroll once a year (usually in March), or quarterly (say June, September etc), you may need to change the timing of the payroll run to make a furlough grant claim.

We will publish more details on this when the HMRC guidance is released.

Find out more here.