The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Portal has gone live today - allowing businesses to claim up to 80% of each affected employee’s salary, to a cap of £2,500 per month.
The opening of the scheme, accessible to all UK businesses, is an important milestone for firms impacted by the spread of Covid-19.
Around two-thirds of companies have furloughed some portion of their workforce, according to research by the British Chambers of Commerce.
In order to apply, employees must have been designated as ‘furloughed’ for a minimum of three weeks and have been on the company’s payroll on or before 19 March 2020 with this status agreed with the employee, accountants Saffery Champness explains.
Employers must be enrolled for PAYE. The scheme has been set up to run for at least 3 months starting from 1 March.
If an employee was made redundant or stopped working for their employer prior to 19 March 2020 but was employed as of 28 February 2020 and was on the payroll they can also qualify for the scheme if their employer has re-employed them and put them on furlough.
David Chismon, partner of Saffery Champness, says: “We hope that this will mean that some of the support promised to businesses, many of whom have slimmed down or mothballed their operations by furloughing staff, will start to come through.
“If the lockdown is extended further, then we would hope that the scheme would be extended also.”
What do I need to make a claim?
To claim, the employer will need:
• Their employer PAYE reference number
• the number of employees being furloughed
• National Insurance numbers for the furloughed employees
• Names of the furloughed employees
• Payroll/employee number for the furloughed employees (optional)
• their self-assessment unique taxpayer reference or corporation tax unique taxpayer reference or company registration number
• the claim period (start and end date)
• the amount claimed (per the minimum length of furloughing of 3 consecutive weeks)
• their bank account number and sort code
• their contact name and phone number
Employers will need to calculate the amount being claimed and HMRC will retain the right to retrospectively audit all aspects of any claim, Saffery Champness adds.
For fewer than 100 furloughed staff employers will be asked to enter details of each employee being claimed for directly into the system including their name, NI number, claim period and claim amount.
