Stephanie Hammond, director of accounts at Beatons, clarifies the application process for companies wanting to furlough staff.
To support struggling businesses and their employees, the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme offers employers grants from HMRC to cover 80 per cent of the wages of furloughed staff on the payroll up to a maximum of £2,500 per worker per month.
It is designed to support employers whose operations have been severely affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) however, there is no specific test for employers to carry out in order to demonstrate that they are facing financial hardship.
Instead employers will self-certify that the outbreak has negatively impacted their business and they are not able to work at full capacity – or indeed at all.
Usually in that instance, the employer would have had to make employees redundant.
Furloughing them is the alternative – keeping workers employed and helping you protect the future of your business.
All you need to do to apply is prove your employees cannot do their jobs due to the coronavirus measures put in place by the government, notify employees of their new ‘furloughed’ status and finally, submit all this information to HMRC about furloughed employees to set up a system for reimbursement. The furlough portal is due to be accessible on April 20.