The furlough guidance and legislation was issued at the end of last week, here is a summary so far.
1. Annual PAYE scheme directors
- Seems they will qualify if they have an RTI dated between 20/3/20 & 30/10/20
- Neither the guidance nor legislation mentions anything about the RTI also having to be in this tax year
- Maximum number of employees on a claim
- No max number of employees on a furlough claim from 1st Nov (we knew that, just reminder)
- Claim period minimum 7 days
- No minimum furlough period but a claim form is for min 7 days (same as before)
- Holiday pay
- “Employees should not be placed on furlough for a period simply because they are on holiday for that period.” So furlough must extend pre and/or post holiday days & employer needs to top up holiday pay to usual amounts.
- Notice periods
- Companies won’t be able to use furlough to contribute towards pay for notice periods from 1st Dec – either due to redundancy or resignation or retirement
- Publishing companies names
- Companies claiming furlough will be published from 1st Dec
- There can be exceptions if publication would risk violence or intimidation, check guidance for examples and action you need to take if this could be an issue for any of your clients
