Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

(asked on 28th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to support employers that have re-employed staff who left their employment after the 28 February 2020 for the purposes of eligibility for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 4th May 2020

Where an employer subsequently re-employs a member of staff who left their employment on or after 28 February 2020, upon re-employment the employee may be furloughed.

From the date the employee is furloughed, the employer is then eligible to claim towards the wages of their employee under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This applies regardless of when they are re-employed.

In order to qualify, the employee must have been on the employer’s PAYE payroll as of 28 February 2020. This means a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment in respect of that employee to HMRC must have been made on or before 28 February 2020.

An employee on a fixed term contract can also be re-employed, furloughed and claimed for, if either:

- their contract expired after 28 February 2020 and an RTI payment submission for the employee was notified to HMRC on or before 28 February 2020, or

- their contract expired after 19 March 2020 and an RTI payment submission for the employee was notified to HMRC on or before 19 March 2020

In these circumstances, employers can apply for a grant that covers 80% of the usual monthly wage costs for their furloughed, re-employed member of staff, up to £2,500 a month. In addition, the employer can also claim the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and pension contributions (up to the level of the minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contribution) on that subsidised furlough pay.

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