Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether casual workers in the independent healthcare sector are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in the event that their employers have entered into a retention agreement with the NHS.

It is a decision for any employer, including those in the independent healthcare provider under contract to provide services to the National Health Service, to choose to apply to access funds from the Government’s COVID-19 Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) to furlough some or all of their workers. Staff must agree to being furloughed.

CJRS allows employers to claim for ‘employees’ on any type of employment contract, including full-time, part-time, agency or flexible. The scheme covers casual and zero-hour workers where they are paid via the PAYE system.

All applications to furlough staff must be made to HM Revenue and Customs. HM Revenue and Customs is ultimately responsible for deciding which applications can receive financial support to furlough staff or not.

Organisations who are receiving public funding specifically to provide services necessary to respond to COVID-19 are not expected to furlough staff, casual or otherwise. This would include independent health care providers under contract to provide services to the NHS in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, it is not expected these providers would furlough substantive staff or “casual” workers i.e. zero-hours contract workers on staff Banks paid via PAYE where those staff are needed to deliver services within scope of the contract and the contract includes funding for staff costs.