COVID-19 Business Updates to 30 June 2020

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

Flexible Furlough details released

A few weeks ago we informed you of the announcement regarding the gradual withdrawal of the furlough scheme.

We now have further clarification on how it is all going to work.

Claims from 1 July 2020 (“new rules”)

In essence the concept of the scheme is the same, except that the government is trying to provide as much flexibility as possible to employers, to encourage them to bring employees back to work (and therefore not paid for by the taxpayer).

Unfortunately, this flexibility has meant that certain claims could become very complicated. To illustrate this complexity, the Government has provided 30 different examples to assist with the calculation. www.gov.uk/government/publications/find-examples-to-help-you-work-out-80-of-your-employees-wages/examples-of-how-to-work-out-80-of-your-employees-wages-national-insurance-contributions-and-pension-contributions#example-precalc1

The fundamental principle of the scheme is still that whilst employees are at work you will pay them in full as normal. Whilst they are on furlough leave you will pay them their furlough pay.

So what exactly does all this mean….

From 1 July, you can bring employees back to work who have been furloughed before this date, for at least three weeks, for any amount of time and any shift pattern, while still being able to claim a grant for any normal hours not worked. In other words, you have full flexibility over which hours furloughed staff work.

If you do decide to flexibly furlough employees, you’ll need to make sure that you agree this with your employee and keep a new written agreement that confirms the new furlough arrangement. You’ll also need to:

• make sure that the agreement is consistent with employment, equality and discrimination laws
• keep a written record of the agreement for five years; and
• keep records of how many hours your employees work and the number of hours they are furloughed (i.e. not working) for six years (you must keep a copy of your records and calculations in relation to your claim to HMRC for six years).

The calculation.  HMRC’s online calculator can only be used for claims ending on or before 30 June. After this date, you will need to work this out for yourselves. This means that for any employees who you are flexibly furloughing, you’ll need to do a series of calculations to work out what the furlough pay will be for the usual hours that your employee is not working during your claim period.