What is HMRC’s guidance for extended furlough?

Author: Hannah Thomas

Employers and their advisors should take note of the following key changes for furlough claim periods from 1 November 2020 and beyond:

1. The government is reviewing whether employers should be eligible to claim for employees serving contractual or statutory notice periods and will change the approach for claim periods starting on or after 1 December 2020, with further guidance to be published in late November. Currently, employers may claim the grant for notice periods.
2. Where employers are claiming for an employee for the period from the 1st November retrospectively, only backdated written agreements put in place up to and including the 13 November 2020 may be relied on for the purposes of a claim. This means employers should ensure that written furlough agreements are in place by 13 November if they are wanting to claim the grant retrospectively from 1st November. We have template furlough contracts available on Law Hub.
3. From December 2020, the names of employers who claim under the scheme for the month of December onwards and, for employers that are registered Companies or Limited Liability Partnerships, both the company name and registration number will be published by HMRC, so that this information will be publicly available.
4. Where an employee decides to end their maternity leave early to enable them to be furloughed, they will need to give their employer at least eight weeks’ notice of their return to work and the employer will not be able to furlough them until the end of the eight weeks.

Please refer to our factsheet on Law Hub for further guidance.

For further advice about extended furlough and the government’s economic response to Covid-19, please contact Hannah Thomas or call us on 0371 705 4006.