Check List for Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – Check List- 15/04/2020

This is a simple checklist to ensure that you are happy that you are covering all area’s whilst you have placed your Staff on Furlough Leave, also a couple of reminders and hints that may help you.

The Job Retention Scheme has been designed by the UK Government to assist you retaining your employees on the payroll, especially those that you would ordinarily lay-off or make redundant during a downturn in business as severe as we are experiencing at the moment.

PLEASE NOTE IT IS NOT TOO LATE YOU CAN TAKE ACTION NOW

IMPORTANT- Furlough Leave can be back dated until 1^st of March 2020 and is currently only available up to 31^st of May 2020, a period of 3 months. Please also note that to be able to claim back the wages paid to your employees they MUST be placed on Furlough Leave for a minimum period of 3 weeks and at this stage there is no maximum period apart from the 31^st of May date. You can however after the first 3 weeks ask your employees to come back to work, which you would pay on the normal basis, however if you place them back on Furlough Leave you then have to have them placed on the minimum period of 3 weeks again, watch you don’t get caught out with this.

There are important guidelines about who can and who cannot be placed on Furlough Leave also how much you can claim for each employee this is explained in detail on the UK Government website CLICK HERE.

• Highlight which employees you wish to place on Furlough Leave.
• Select the first day of Furlough Leave for each employee as the first day that they were unable to work, the 3 week period starts from that date.
• You must write to these employees and gain acceptance of being placed on Furlough Leave, ask the employee to sign the agreement and keep this agreement filed, as you will require this documentation if inspected by the HMRC (keep for 5 years)
• In the agreement you would indicate if it is just the 80% of their pay you are paying them or if you are topping this up, you are not entitled to do so.
• You need to register with the HMRC Gateway Account for PAYE, many of you will already have an active account for VAT, however you will require to register for PAYE also or you will be unable to make the claim. The HMRC Portal for making the claims will be open on the 20^th of April and the turn around for payments to be paid back to you between 4-6 days, therefore in an ideal world to assist cashflow you want to be putting the claim before you make the payment of wages.
• Guidance on what should be paid to employees and what you can claim back are available here. CLICK HERE.
• Please note that ‘Compulsory Commission’ can now be used in the calculation for salespeople. This is where regular payments of Commission for Car Sales & Upsells or performance related sales that are paid monthly, these commissions can now be used within the calculations to ensure salespeople are receiving 80% of their average monthly pay up to a max of £2500.