Further details have now been released on flexible furloughing.
You can view the full guidance on the Gov.uk website by clicking here.
In our last update, we flagged that the Scheme will close to new entrants from 30 June 2020 meaning employers will only be able to furlough employees that they have furloughed for a full three-week period prior to 30 June 2020. This meant the final date an employer could furlough an employee for the first time is 10 June 2020. An exception to this has been included in the guidance where an employee has returned from maternity, shared parental, adoption, paternity or parental bereavement leave after 10 June 2020 subject to the employer having furloughed another employee previously and the employee returning from the specified period of leave being on the employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020.
For those employers assessing the likely costs associated with a flexible furlough arrangement, the updated guidance also contains useful worked examples on how to calculate the grants that can be claimed via the Scheme for an employee on a part-time flexible furlough arrangement (see example 3.8 at the Gov.uk website by clicking here.)
As example 3.8 of the guidance shows, the amount that can be claimed under the Scheme depends on the proportion of the employee’s normal working hours actually worked in the relevant pay period e.g. where an employee worked for 50% of their normal working hours in a pay period the maximum claim via the Scheme would be 50% of what it would have been for the same employee had the employee been completely furloughed (e.g. worked no hours in the pay period) as compared to being flexibly furloughed.
If you would like advice on how the changes to the Furlough Scheme may affect your business, or for help on any other Employment & HR issue, please contact a member of our Employment & HR Team or click here to send an email.
Posted on June 15, 2020
