Flexible Furloughing
From the 1st July 2020 you can bring back furloughed employees part-time – the government will pay 80% of their wages for any of their normal hours not worked. This will continue to the end of August.
Employees can work as much or as little as your business needs, with no minimum time that you can furlough staff for.
Working hours agreed with your employee must cover at least one week and be confirmed to the employee in writing. When claiming the CJRS grant, you will need to report and claim for a minimum period of a week (you can still make claims for longer periods such as monthly or two weekly cycles). You will be required to submit data on the usual hours an employee would be expected to work in a claim period and actual hours worked.
If employees are unable to return to work or you do not have work for them, they can remain on the full furlough scheme.
Employer Contributions
From August the government grant provided through the job retention scheme will be slowly tapered.
In June and July; the government will pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 as well as employer National Insurance and pension contributions for the hours the employee doesn’t work
In August; the government will continue to pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 but employers will pay employer National Insurance and pension contributions
In September; the government will pay 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay National Insurance, pension contributions and 10% of wages to make up 80% of the total up to the cap of £2,500
In October; the government will pay 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay National Insurance, pension contributions and 20% of wages to make up 80% of the total up to the cap of £2,500
The cap on the furlough grant will be proportional to the hours not worked.
For smaller employers, some/all of your employer National Insurance bills will be covered by the Employment Allowance.
Important Dates
The scheme will close to new entrants from 30th June 2020. From this point you will only be able to furlough employees that you have furloughed for a full three-week period prior to 30th June.
This means that the final date you can furlough an employee for the first time will be the 10th June for the current three-week furlough period to be completed by 30th June. Employers will have until 31st July to make any claims in respect of the period to 30 June.
Further Guidance
Further support on how to calculate claims with this extra flexibility is expected the be available by 12th June, including webinars and detailed online guidance.