All UK businesses are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which will part pay employee wages who may have needed to be laid off due to financial pressures. HMRC will cover 80% of the worker's wage cost, up to £2,500 per month.
Businesses will need to:
- identify employees as ‘furloughed workers' and inform employees, although this is still reliant on employment law and employment contacts; and
- update HMRC about the employees and their earnings, which will be feasible through a new online portal that is due to be released soon.
The Government is expecting to have the portal for applications up and running by the end of April.
For those who may experience short-term cashflow difficulties in the meantime, there are also funding and loan opportunities and you can find out more about these in our article here.
To find out more about the coronavirus job retention scheme, click here.