Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether historical (a) PAYE and tax references, (b) contracts of employment, (c) (i) notice and (ii) acceptance letters are adequate proof of employment status for acceptance on to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

In March, the Government announced the unprecedented Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help firms keep millions of people in employment. HMRC have developed and delivered the scheme at record speed, and it opened for claims on 20 April, just one month after it was announced.

Employers can claim for furloughed employees who were employed on 19 March and on their PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020. This means that an RTI submission notifying payment in respect of that employee must have been made on or before 19 March 2020.

The scheme has been set up to operate at significant scale and with limited manual intervention. The Government has prioritised helping the greatest number of people as quickly as possible, and this approach achieves that, balancing it against the risk of fraud that exists as soon as the scheme became public.

Those not eligible for the scheme may have access to other support Government is providing, including a package of temporary welfare measures and up to three months’ mortgage payment holidays for those in difficulty with mortgage payments.