Coronavirus Furlough Claim Calculator

Employers must confirm in writing to their employee that they have been furloughed. If this is done in a way that is consistent with employment law, that consent is valid for the purposes of making a claim through the scheme.
A collective agreement reached between an employer and a trade union is also acceptable for the claim. There needs to be a written record, but the employee does not have to provide a written response. A record of this communication must be kept for five years.

You can apply for a grant that covers 80% of your employees' monthly wages, up to £2,500 a month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and pension contributions on that subsidised furlough pay. As per the revised changes by the Government, starting September, you can apply for 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 for the hours the employee is on furlough. And for October, you can apply for 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875 for the hours the employee is on furlough.

According to the information we have as of now, this temporary scheme will be in place for 4 months starting on 1 March 2020, but it may be extended if necessary.

You can apply for this grant for employees on any type of employment contract, including full-time, part-time, agency, flexible, or zero-hour contracts. Foreign nationals are also eligible for this on all categories of visa.

You can only submit claims for furloughed employees who were employed as of 19 March 2020 and who were on your PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020. This means an RTI submission regarding payment to that employee must have been made on or before 19 March 2020. Here's a more complete breakdown of eligibility by date:

Any employees you place on furlough must be furloughed for a minimum of three consecutive weeks.

You can make the claim in anticipation of an imminent payroll run, at the point when you run your payroll, or after you have run your payroll. Claims can be backdated as far as 1 March 2020 if employees have already been furloughed from that date. A claim cannot start any earlier than the date the employee was first furloughed. You must pay the full amount you are claiming to your employee.

You cannot make more than one claim during a claim period. This means you should include all of the employees that you want to furlough for that claim period, because you will not be able to make another claim for the same period or one that overlaps. It is not possible to amend a claim once it is submitted. HMRC is looking to develop a process to allow amendments to be made.

It is up to you to decide the length of your claim period based on how frequently you run your payroll. Claims should be started from the date that the employee finishes work and starts furlough, not the date when the decision is made.