10th June: final call for joining the furlough scheme

If you or any of your clients are employers, the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for furloughed workers may have proved helpful in recent months.

The scheme was introduced in March to enable employers to retain employees who they may have otherwise been forced to lay off during the pandemic. The scheme currently allows employers to claim 80% of furloughed employees’ wages, employer’s National Insurance (NI) and pension contributions from the government, although its scope is set to change in the coming months.

According to HMRC’s data, over 1.1 million employers have used the scheme and over 8.7 million jobs have been furloughed to date. While the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, recently announced that the scheme will be extended to the end of October, it will close to “new entrants” from 30th June.

This means that from 30th June onwards, employers will only be able to furlough employees who have already been furloughed for at least three full weeks prior to this date. As a result, the latest date from which you and your clients can furlough an employee for the first time is Wednesday 10th June. This is also the final date from which employers can join the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme for the first time.

HMRC provides comprehensive guidance for employers on how the furlough scheme works on its website, along with further details of how the scheme is set to change. If your clients are unsure of what information they’ll need in order to make a claim through the scheme, you can share our handy guide with them.

Keep your clients up to date by sharing this version of the blog post with them. For more useful resources and helpful content that you can share with your clients, check out our coronavirus practice support hub.