Scheme extension

On Friday 17 April 2020, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, confirmed that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the “Scheme”) would be extended by one month.

The Scheme will now be open until at least the end of June 2020, instead of the end of May 2020. This change reflects the three week extension to the current UK-wide social distancing measures announced on 16 April 2020. The Scheme will be kept under review by the government and may be extended further if necessary.

Practical consequences

Employers will need to consider whether their current furloughing arrangements need to be updated – with employees’ agreement – to run their furlough arrangements on to the new end date of the Scheme.

Employers who had been anticipating making redundancies on 1 June 2020 to coincide with the end of the Scheme will also wish potentially to revisit their plans.

Further developments

As has been apparent over the past few weeks from the number of iterations there have been of the Government’s guidance, the detail of the Scheme is subject to change, and we issue updates on any further amendments to the guidance on the Scheme as and when it is issued. As yet no further guidance has been issued in relation to the issues surrounding furloughed employees’ holiday entitlements.

HMRC is expected to open its online portal for claims under the Scheme this Monday, 20 April 2020.