**BREAKING 17 December 2020: Furlough extended to 30 April 2021**
Great news for many employers and employees today, as the furlough is being extended to 30 April 2021 (previously extended to 31 March 2021.
The Job Support Scheme previously announced has been shelved for now.
Who can be furloughed?
- Any employee on a payroll filed with HMRC by midnight 30 October 2020
- Anyone whose contract ended on or before 23 September 2020 can be brought back and furloughed
What will they be paid?
- The Government will fund 80% of the employees’ gross pay, for their furloughed hours
- The employer will cover employers’ pensions and NIC
- The employer can top up the 20%
- If the employee is flexi-furloughed:
- Government will pay 80% of the furloughed hours
- Employer pays the hours worked
What about employees’ holiday?
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- If your employee is on holiday during furlough, you can claim for the hours they are furloughed
- If someone is flexibly furloughed, holiday taken will count as furlough
- You should top up the 20% if employees take holiday while furloughed
- You should not put employees on furlough just so that you can claim their holiday
What about redundancies?
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- If an employee is already serving a statutory redundancy notice period, they can be furloughed
- If their redundancy starts on or after 1 December, you can’t furlough them
- Redundancy pay will calculated be on their normal wage, not the furloughed amount
- You can’t use the furlough to cover their redundancy pay
How do we claim the furlough grant?
- This is the same as previously, you can claim through your HMRC Government Gateway account
What else do we need to know?
- The Job Retention Bonus is now postponed
- This was going to be paid in February 2021, if you still employed people to 31 January 2021, who were previously furloughed
- KickStart Scheme is still ongoing
- Self-employed grant portal open 30 November 2020 for the 3rd grant
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What else do you need to know?
- Third self employment grant
- KickStart Scheme
