200,000 More Employees Could Now Be Furloughed

Over 200,000 more employees could now be furloughed as the government has amended their scheme to help people receive wages.

Companies who have laid off workers will be able to apply to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme from Monday, which will cover 80% of workers’ pay.

The scheme initially only provided support to those who were in employment on 28 February, but the cut-off date has been changed to 19 March.

Despite this, many who were recently employed will still not be eligible.

Employers needed to have had their workers on the payroll by 19 March in order for their employees to be eligible - which was when the scheme was initially announced. However, this will not cover those who weren’t put on the PAYE scheme until later on in March.

HM Revenue and Customers will need to have been notified by employers that they had a new employee on the payroll - something which is done via the Real Time Information (RTI) system which notifies the authority when an employee receives pay.

Therefore, someone who was paid later in March is not likely to be covered by the scheme.

Opposition parties, unions, and employees themselves have banded together to campaign for those who were starting a new job just as the lockdown started.

HMRC has said that wages will be paid for furloughed employees by the end of April.

The scheme will run until 1 June, however the Treasury has announced that the scheme may be extended.

A spokesperson for the Treasury said: "The scheme is open for an initial three months and we hope conditions will improve sufficiently during this period. However, the Chancellor has been clear he will review extending it for longer if necessary”.

There are concerns that employers may start laying off staff unless the government makes clear whether the scheme will be extended or not.

The director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Carolyn Fairbairn, said: "We are very concerned that businesses will be forced into a position potentially of having to make people permanently redundant”.

Fairbairn says that the government needs to clarify things before 18 April: "What we are saying to government is that firms need to be able to plan.

"These are massive decisions being taken on a day-to-day basis that affect people's lives and livelihoods, and having that clarity of a 45-day notice period for business is absolutely vital”.