Top 10 things to know about the Furlough extension

1. The Furlough scheme has now been extended to the end of March, with a review taking place in January 2021 to determine if the 80% government contribution should be reviewed and to determine if employers will be asked to contribute more to the employees pay during February and March

2. The Job Retention Bonus will now not be paid in February and an alternative ‘retention incentive’ will be deployed at some point in the future

3. Employers do not need to have used the CJRS previously to use the extended scheme

4. Employers can claim for employees who were employed and on their PAYE payroll on 30 October 2020. The employer must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between the 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.

5. For an employee who meets the criteria of the extended scheme but was not previously eligible for CJRS, the alternative calculations of reference pay and usual hours must be used. For all other employees, employers must use the CJRS calculations for calculating reference pay and usual hours. If an employee was not previously eligible for CJRS, 80% of wages must be calculated for employees:

• on a fixed salary – 80% of the wages payable in the last pay period ending on or before 30 October 2020,
• whose pay varies – 80% of the average payable between (these dates are inclusive) the start date of their employment or 6 April 2020 (whichever is later) and the day before their CJRS extension furlough periods begins

6. Employers can still top up the Furlough payments over and above the 80% at their own expense

7. An employer can make a claim in anticipation of an imminent payroll run, at the point they run their payroll or after they have run their payroll.

8. Claims can be made from 8am Wednesday 11 November 2020.

9. The launch of the Job Support Scheme has been postponed because of national developments related to the coronavirus pandemic.

10. Full guidance will include further detail on how to claim and will be published on 10 November 2020.

Phase 3 are on hand to offer support during this period. Visit our Covid 19 Hub for free Furlough Calculators, resources and claim templates.