Applying for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

The HMRC portal opened to much anticipation on Monday morning, and within the first half hour over 67,000 claims had been submitted - and so far, the portal has had no technical issues, with the claims expected to arrive in the individual bank accounts within 7 to 10 days.

Our previous blogs cover the subject in depth, so we having clicked through the portal we have put together a short blog covering what you need to have prepared for when you go to submit your claim - as well as a refresh of the eligibility criteria required for both Employers and Employees.

And so you don't have to write any of this done, or flick back and forth between tabs (which gets old quickly), you can click the button below and download the PDF of this blog.

Applying for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

What are the eligibility criteria for Employers?
The Scheme is open to all UK Employers, there is no limitation on size or number of employees. The only eligibility criteria that must be met are:

• The Employer must have created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before 19th March 2020.
• This must include registration for an e-PAYE account.
• They must have a UK bank account for business transactions.

Where a company is in administration, the administrator will be able to access the Scheme on behalf of those Employees.

What are the eligibility criteria for Employees?
All Employees who are subject to PAYE are eligible for the Scheme, as long as:

• The Employee was on the PAYE payroll on or before 19th March 2020.
• The Employee is being furloughed for their full-time hours, as you cannot furlough an Employee on reduced hours.
• There is no work available for the Employee (as they cannot work for you while they are furloughed).
• The Employee has agreed to be furloughed (an Employer cannot enforce furlough leave, there must be a contractual agreement).
• The Employee was not on unpaid leave prior to the 19th March 2020.
• The Employee is not drawing on a statutory benefit, such as sick pay or maternity pay etc.

 
 Employees that can be furloughed include:

• The following contract types: full time, part time, Agency, fixed term, variable hours or flexible and zero hours. Foreign nationals are also eligible.
• Employees made redundant (or terminated) that stopped working for you on or after 19th March 2020, can be re-employed and furloughed (at your discretion).
• Employees that are struggling with childcare or caring arrangements due to the virus.
• Employees shielding (but not those who are self-isolating).
• Employees who started unpaid leave after 19th March 2020.

Individuals (who are not Employees) who can be furloughed:

• Office holders, including Company Directors – although there is some additional compliance in this respect.
• Salaried members of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs).

What should Employers be aware of before using the HMRC portal?
The HMRC portal has 14 separate screens that you must move through within 30 minutes – there is no ‘save’ facility so if the portal times out you will have to start again.
It is important to have the following information at your fingertips prior to starting:

• The total number of Employees to be furloughed.
  • If this number exceeds 100 Employees, then you can upload an Excel spreadsheet to the system instead.
  • You will need to create a file with the following columns completed:
    • Full Name
    • National Insurance number
    • Payroll number (or PAYE scheme reference number)
    • Furlough start date
    • Furlough end date (if known – if you want to continue for the period of the furlough Scheme then leave this blank)
    • Full amount claimed for each individual Employee, remembering the £2500 cap per individual.
• The dates Employees have been furloughed to and from (you can leave the end date blank if you want the Employee to remain furloughed for the length of the Scheme).
  • Please note: Employee’s must be furloughed for a minimum of three weeks at a time.
• For each Employee: Full Name, National Insurance number, PAYE scheme reference number and amount being claimed for (per pay period).
• Your Corporation Tax Unique Taxpayer Reference or Self-Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference.
• Your Company Registration Number.
• Your UK bank account details including the registered address.
• Your Company’s registered name and address.
• Your contact details.

The process is time-consuming as well as being time-limited, so having this together in advance on a spreadsheet or similar document will be beneficial as it will save looking through lots of documents.
When making your claim, you can claim retrospectively from the 1st March 2020 as well as for the month of April, however, please note: you can only claim 3 weeks in advance of the current date. Basically, you will be claiming for a “pay period”, so if you pay monthly then you will retrospectively claim for that months payments – there appears to be no way of setting a claim for future pay periods as of yet, so each month you will have to repeat this process until the 30th June 2020 (the current date the Scheme is due to end).
Once your claim has been accepted by HMRC, you should receive a payment into the bank account you registered within 6 working days.

For ideas on how to make the Scheme work for your business, come and talk to us by emailing: [email protected]