Chancellor extends furlough scheme deadline

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has extended the deadline for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme after it was found that many people who had recently changed jobs were set to miss out. 

Under the scheme announced last month, employers can claim a grant covering 80% of the wages for a furloughed employee, subject to a cap of £2,500 a month.

To qualify and to protect against fraudulent claims, individuals originally had to be employed on February 28 2020.

But following a “review of the delivery system” and to ensure the scheme “helps as many people as possible”, new guidance published today has confirmed the eligibility date has been extended to March 19 2020– the day before the scheme was announced.

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

This change means the scheme is now expected to benefit over 200,000 additional employees.

It is believed the scheme is to be fully operational by next week.