Updated 15 April 2020
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is a temporary scheme open to all UK employers for at least three months starting from 1 March 2020. The scheme should be up and running by the end of April.and is designed to support employers whose operations have been severely affected by coronavirus (COVID-19).
Employers can use a portal to claim for 80% of furloughed employees’ (employees on a leave of absence) usual monthly wage costs, up to £2,500 a month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that wage.
Employers can use this scheme anytime during this period.
The scheme is open to all UK employers that had created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on 19 March 2020.
All UK businesses with a PAYE payroll as of 19 March 2020, that were enrolled for PAYE online are eligible for the Scheme.
All employees that were on payroll as of 19 March 2020 are eligible for the Scheme, including full-time and part-time employees, agency workers and zero-hour/flexible workers.
This includes those who were on payroll as of 28 of February and were made redundant prior to 19 March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, as long as they are then re-hired. In order to qualify for the grant, employees must be furloughed and stop working for the employer.
The government expects that the scheme will not be used by many public sector organisations, as the majority of public sector employees are continuing to provide essential public services or contribute to the response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Where employers receive public funding for staff costs, and that funding is continuing, the government expects those employers to use that money to continue to pay staff in the usual fashion, and correspondingly not furlough them.
This also applies to non-public sector employers who receive public funding for staff costs.
Organisations who are receiving public funding specifically to provide services necessary to respond to COVID-19 are not expected to furlough staff.
In a small number of cases, for example where organisations are not primarily funded by the government and whose staff cannot be redeployed to assist with the coronavirus response, the scheme may be appropriate for some staff.
Furloughed employees must have been on your PAYE payroll on 19 March 2020, and can be on any type of contract, including: