Employers across the UK will have welcomed the Government’s recent decision to extend the furlough scheme, also known as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), until the end of March 2021.

The Government hopes this will help businesses to protect jobs by offering a subsidised wage equivalent to 80 per cent of an employee’s normal wage, up to a limit of £2,500, for the time not worked, with associated National Insurance and Workplace Pension contributions paid by the employer.

This builds on the previous scheme and introduces a number of new rules, including:

• From December onwards, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will publish the names and registration numbers of limited companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) that claim from the CJRS. This measure excludes claims relating to November or to other classes of employer.
• The Government is considering a change to the rules of the scheme from 1 December 2020 to prevent claims in respect of employees serving contractual or statutory notice periods. The outcome of this review will be set out in further guidance to be published before the end of November. 
• Deadlines for claims are 11.59pm 14 days after the end of the month being claimed for unless this falls on a weekend. In those circumstances, the deadline is the next working day.
• Employers that have underclaimed have 28 calendar days from the end of the month the claim relates to, to amend the claim, unless this is a weekend or public holiday.
• Employers only have until this Friday 13 November to agree to retrospectively furlough or flexibly furlough an employee from 1 November. 
• Employees who wish to return early from maternity leave to be furloughed, with the agreement of their employer, must give eight weeks’ notice.

Like the previous scheme, the rules surrounding furlough are complex and so we have created a helpful FAQ to answer common questions you may have.