The Government has updated its guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which confirms how the scheme will change from 1 July 2020 to provide for ‘flexible furloughing’:

  • Employers can only furlough an employee who has previously been furloughed prior to 30 June. The exception is employees returning from statutory maternity and paternity leave, provided that their employer has previously furloughed other employees
  • Employers can bring furloughed employees back to work for any amount of time and on any work pattern while still claiming grant for the hours not worked. Flexible furlough agreements must be for a minimum of one week, and employees can enter into a flexible furlough agreement more than once
  • Employers must confirm in writing with employees and keep records of how many hours employees work and the number of hours they are furloughed
  • If an employee is flexible furloughed over two different calendar months, a separate claim must be submitted for each month
  • From 1 August, employers will have to contribute towards the cost of furloughed employees’ wages.

When making a claim, employers will need to provide the number of hours an employee would have usually worked as well as the number of hours they actually worked, and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme calculator has been updated to assist in working out claim amounts for flexible furloughing.

The first time you will be able to make claims for days in July will be 1 July, you cannot claim for periods in July before this point.

31 July is the last day that you can submit claims for periods ending on or before 30 June.

Visit the FIS Employment Law Toolkit here