The Corona-virus has caused most businesses to grind to a halt, meaning companies are unable to get money coming into to business. this in turn will have affect on the ability for businesses to pay for expenses, overheads and labor. The Job Retention Scheme is aimed at helping business to continue paying their employees.
Businesses will be able to claim for 80% of all employee's wages, up to £2,500 per month, including employers National Insurance and employers Pension Contributions, as long as employees are furloughed.
Who Can Claim?
If COVID-19 has severely affected your business resulting in it being unable to maintain its' workforce, you are able to apply for a grant for furloughed employees which will cover 80% of their usual monthly wage cost, up to £2,500 per month.
In order to claim this grant you must have:
Created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before March 2020.
Enrolled for PAYE online
Have a UK bank account
All entities with a UK payroll including businesses, charities and public authorities can apply for the scheme.
Employees you can claim for:
Employees on all types of employment contracts, including full-time, part-time, agency, flexible or zero-hour contracts.
Employees on fixed term contracts can be re-employed, furloughed and if the contract expired after 28 February 2020 and RTI payment submission regarding employee was sent to HMRC on or before 28 February 2020.
Foreign nationals are eligible to be furloughed as well as employees on all categories of visas.
Employees employed on 19 March 2020 and were on the PAYE payroll before or on 19 March 2020. Therefore RTI submissions regarding employees you are claiming for must have been made on or before 19 March 2020.
Employees on unpaid leave after 28 February 2020 can be put in furlough instead and claim for 80% of regular wages up to £2,500 per month. Employees on unpaid leave before or on 28 February 2020 must wait until date on which they agreed to return before they are able to be furloughed and claimed for.
Apprentices can be furloughed in the same way as any other employees, while still being able to train while being furloughed. Although once furloughed you must pay apprentices at least National Minimum Wage for the time spent training.
To be eligible to claim the grant, employees must be furloughed. This means that they must not undertake work on behalf of the organisation or associated organisations during the period they are furloughed, including providing services or generating revenue. Not all employees are required to be furloughed in the organisation, this may enable the company to allocate critical tasks to not furloughed staff, although these employees will not be eligible for the grant.
How to claim?
When deciding which employees to offer furlough, equality and discrimination laws must be taken in to account, as well as whether on not any changes to their employment contracts must be made. Once this has been decided, employers must confirm to employees in writing that they have been furloughed. This written record must be kept for five years.
Employees must be furloughed for a minimum of three weeks, therefore the amount claimed must be for at least three weeks of usual wages. While furloughed employees may not contribute to any work that would make revenue for your company or provide a service to you or an other organisation associated to your organisation. Employees that are furloughed are able to take part in training or volunteer for another employer of organisation. Claims can be made from the GOV.uk website.
What you will need?
To make a claim, you will need:
to be registered for PAYE online
your UK bank account number and sort code (only provide bank account details where a BACS payment can be accepted)
the billing address on your bank account (this is the address on your bank statements)
your employer PAYE scheme reference number
the number of employees being furloughed
each employee’s National Insurance number (you will need to search for their number if you do not have it or contact HMRC if your employee does not have a number)
each employee’s payroll or employee number (optional)
the start date and end date of the claim
the full amounts that you’re claiming for including:
employee wages
employer National Insurance contributions
employer minimum pension contributions
your phone number
contact name
You also need to provide either:
your name (or the employer’s name if you’re an agent)
your Corporation Tax unique taxpayer reference
your Self Assessment unique taxpayer reference
your company registration number
To claim you will need the Government Gateway user ID and password that the business was given when registering for PAYE online. If you are claiming for 100 employees or more, you will be required to upload a file containing these details regarding each employee:
Full name
National Insurance Number
Payroll number
Furlough start date
Furlough end date (If known)
Full amount claimed.
To get more help, check out - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wages-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme
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