COVID-19 – Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Update
The Government has announced further updates to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme relating to the eligibility of staff that can be furloughed.
It is now possible to claim for staff that were employed as of the 19th of March 2020 and were reported to HMRC on a real time information submission on or before March 19th, 2020. This was extended from the previous qualifying date of the 28th of February 2020.
Employees that were employed on the 28th of February 2020 and were included on an RTI submission on or before the 28th of February 2020 and were made redundant or stopped working before March 19th, can also qualify if they are re-employed and put on furlough.
These are again significant changes and are helpful for people changing jobs before the Coronavirus outbreak who were subsequently unable to continue to work. We have a few clients that will benefit from this extension of the eligibility rules, so this is most welcome.
Once again, the Government have confirmed that the only way to make a claim for the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme will be through the new online claim portal that will be made available on the 20th of April.
Demand for this service is expected to be high so there will more than likely be delays in receiving funding, although the Government are now saying that payments will be made in six working days from making the application.
You will need to have a Government Gateway login to make the application for funding, if you don’t have one you can apply for one here. You should do this as soon as possible if you are going to make the claim yourself and not use an agent to make the claim for you.
You will need to maintain records of the calculations used in your claims for funding, should HMRC request to see them.