Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme guidance
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The new guidance for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was published yesterday evening.
The temporary scheme is open to all UK employers for at least three months starting from 1 March 2020. It is designed to support employers whose operations have been severely affected by coronavirus (COVID-19).
The scheme is open to all UK employers that had created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on 28 February 2020. The scheme will cover the cost of wages backdated to 1 March 2020, if applicable.
HMRC are aiming to have the scheme up and running by the end of April 2020. More detailed guidance will be published in due course.
Work out what you can claim
Employers need to make a claim for wage costs through this scheme.
You will receive a grant from HMRC to cover the lower of 80% of an employee's regular wage or £2,500 per month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that subsidised wage. Fees, commission and bonuses should not be included.
At a minimum, employers must pay their employee the lower of 80% of their regular wage or £2,500 per month. An employer can also choose to top up an employee's salary beyond this but is not obliged to under this scheme.
How to make a claim
Employers should discuss with their staff and make any changes to the employment contract by agreement. Employers may need to seek legal advice on the process. If sufficient numbers of staff are involved, it may be necessary to engage collective consultation processes to procure agreement to changes to terms of employment.
To claim, you will need:
- your ePAYE reference number
- the number of employees being furloughed
- the claim period (start and end date)
- amount claimed (per the minimum length of furloughing of 3 weeks)
- your bank account number and sort code
- your contact name
- your phone number
- You will need to calculate the amount you are claiming. HMRC will retain the right to retrospectively audit all aspects of your claim.
We will issue more guidance on how employers should calculate their
claims for Employer National Insurance Contributions and minimum
automatic enrolment employer pension contributions, before the scheme
becomes live.
The Guidance for employers is available on the Government website here.
You may also find the guidance for employees helpful, which enables employees to find out if their employer is eligible, and how
much they can claim if they're unable to operate or have no work for
employees to do because of coronavirus (COVID-19).
