Get your business ready for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

HMRC has confirmed the new portal for employers to register a claim for furloughed workers will be open on Monday 20th April 2020.

The Chancellor announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to support businesses and protect the UK economy through the pandemic. This scheme allows employers to claim 80% of the wages of staff that they have furloughed (up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee).

This is a temporary scheme in place for 3 months starting from 1st March 2020, but it may be extended if necessary and employers can use this scheme anytime during this period.

The scheme is open to every employer in the UK, but is only available for designated workers who have been furloughed.

Since the original announcement of the scheme, the Government has made changes to the scheme:

• you can claim for employees that were employed as of 19 March 2020 and were on your PAYE payroll on or before that date (this means that you will have made an RTI submission notifying us of payment of that employee on or before 19 March 2020)
• employees that were employed as of 28 February 2020 and on payroll (i.e. notified to us on an RTI submission on or before 28 February) and were made redundant or stopped working for you after that, and prior to 19 March 2020, can also qualify for the scheme if you re-employ them and put them on furlough.

HMRC is working to deliver a service that will allow businesses to make a claim for the 80% of their furloughed workers wages and has confirmed the new portal will open on 20th April.

HMRC will pay claims within 6 working days. Payments will be paid by BACS.

Claims can be made within 14 days before payroll is run.

If you're business is eligible for the scheme, there are things you can do now to be ready when the system is up and running on 20th April. 

You'll need the following to be able to make a claim:

1. A Government Gateway (GG) ID and password (if you don’t already have a GG account, you can apply for one online here)
2. Be enrolled for PAYE online (if you aren't registered you can register here)
3. The bank account number and sort code you’d like us to use when HMRC pay your claim.
4. The name and phone number of the person in your business for HMRC to call with any questions.
5. Your Self-Assessment UTR (Unique Tax Reference), Company UTR or CRN (Company Registration Number).
6. The name, employee number and National Insurance number for each of your furloughed employees.
7. The total amount being claimed for all employees and the total furlough period.

If you have fewer than 100 furloughed staff, you will need to input information directly into the system for each employee. If you have 100 or more furloughed staff, you will need to upload a file with information of each employee (file types accepted: .xls .xlsx .csv .ods.)

Please note, if you use an agent who is authorised to act for you for PAYE purposes, they will be able to make a claim on your behalf, so please contact them now.

File only agents, including Payroll Bureaus, will not be able access the service due to data protection reasons, and therefore you will need to make the claim yourself.

For the latest updates and advice, please visit GOV.UK.