Job Retention Scheme – Furlough Leave

Some more details have been published about how the Job Retention scheme will work and what employees will be able to claim.

As a reminder, furlough leave is a completely new job retention scheme which allows employers to retain staff whilst they address any economic downturn as a result of COVID-19.

Furloughed employees are those who have been designated as having no work to do (i.e. will remain at home and do not have the requirement to complete any tasks) but who will be retained by the employer.

For each furloughed employee, the company will be able to claim:

• 80% of the employee’s normal gross pay or GBP 2500, whichever is lower
• The employer’s National Insurance Contribution on that amount
• The employer’s minimum auto-enrolment pension contribution (3%) on that amount

The company can choose to:

• Pay the employee the amount claimed from the government, or
• Make up the rest of the employee’s usual salary – this would not be recoverable from the government

If you wish to take advantage of this scheme, you need to inform the affected employees and obtain their written consent. We have templates available for you to do this. We will calculate the amount of your claim and file it online as part of your monthly payroll process.

You can move employees in and out of furlough as required, but each furloughed period must be for a minimum of three weeks. You could, therefore, rotate employees to spread the burden.

This scheme is initially scheduled to run from 1^st March to 31^st May. You can backdate a claim for any employee who has already been made redundant, on the condition that their job is reinstated. If the impact of COVID-19 extends beyond 31^stMay, the scheme is very likely to be extended.