Furlough loophole means parents on maternity or paternity leave can still be added to scheme after today’s deadline
PARENTS on maternity and paternity leave can still be added to the furlough scheme after today’s deadline, the Treasury has said. The coronavirus job retention scheme closes for new applications today, June 10. But the Treasury has confirmed a loophole which means parents returning to work after the cut-off date following extended leave will still […]
PARENTS on maternity and paternity leave can still be added to the furlough scheme after today’s deadline, the Treasury has said.
The coronavirus job retention scheme closes for new applications today, June 10.
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But the Treasury has confirmed a loophole which means parents returning to work after the cut-off date following extended leave will still be eligible.
This applies to Brits on paternity and maternity leave as well as those on adoption leave, shared parental leave, and parental bereavement leave.
Although, your employer must have previously furloughed staff to be able to do it after the deadline.
The Sun has asked the Treasury what time the scheme closes today, and we’ll update this article once we hear back.
How does the furlough scheme work?
ANY UK organisation with employees can apply, including businesses, charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities.
It’s up to your place of work to apply to the scheme, meaning you won’t need to contact the government yourself.
To access the scheme, your employer must comply with the following:
- Designate employees who cannot do their jobs due to the coronavirus measures put in place by the government
- Notify those employees of their new “furloughed” status
- Submit information to HMRC about furloughed employees to set up a system for reimbursement and about existing systems that will facilitate payments
To be furloughed, you must have been on a payroll on March 19.
Workers can ask previous employers to rehire and furlough them, even if they left for another job, but firms don’t have to do this.
Furlough leave can be backdated to March 1 and employers can apply for the scheme until June 10.
At present, the furlough scheme sees the government pay 80 per cent of the wages, capped at £2,500 a month, of employees who are currently unable to work.
However, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has confirmed he will soon start weaning off the government support meaning businesses will have to pay towards salaries for staff on the furlough scheme.
From August, employers will have to start stumping up some of the costs of furloughed workers, starting with paying National Insurance and pension contributions.
Then from September, businesses who continue to furlough employees will have to stump up 10 per cent of their wages, and 20 per cent in October.
The government will pay 70 per cent of wages in September and 60 per cent in October.
Firms will not be able to furlough new staff beyond June 30.
This means companies have until June 10 to process new applications because of the three-week minimum period they must currently be out of work for.
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The Treasury said it’s closing the scheme to new applications to enable the introduction of part-time furloughing and support those already furloughed back to work.
More details of the change will be published this Friday, June 12, it added.
The Sun has asked the Treasury whether it’ll set a separate cut-off date for parents on extended leave to be furloughed, and we’ll update this article once we hear back.
The announcement comes after campaign groups warned that employers, unable to furlough those on statutory maternity or paternity, could make those workers redundant instead.
Last week, charity Maternity Action urged Mr Sunak to make an exemption on the cut-off date for parents who don’t return to work until after June 10.
It said it’d received several calls from mums on maternity leave, who feared that if their workplace hasn’t fully reopened by the end of their leave and they cannot be furloughed, they’ll simply be made redundant instead.
Mr Sunak said today: “When I announced these changes to the furlough scheme last month, I was clear that we wanted to do this in a fair way, that supports people back to work as the country begins to reopen following coronavirus.
“But for parents returning from leave, their circumstances has meant that they are still in need of support, and I’m pleased that they will be able to receive the financial assistance they and their family will need.”
The coronavirus job retention scheme has so far furloughed roughly nine million jobs, helping one million employers pay their staff wages.
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But workers have been warned a “significant” number face redundancy as the scheme comes to an end.
In April, the qualifying date workers had to be employed on to be eligible for the scheme was extended from February 28 to March 19 – benefitting up to 200,000 extra workers.
Plus, we explain everything you need to know about the furlough changes.