The Furlough scheme is still in place and shall continue until the end of October. So, you can still put employees on flexible furlough if they meet the requirements of the scheme.
Last week and in yesterday’s briefing, Rishi Sunak announced that the job support scheme has been extended for those businesses who are in local lockdown.
The way in which the scheme will work is that employers will be able to reduce their employee’s normal hours of work, but the employee must be working at least 33% of their usual hours. For the hours that the employee works, they will be entitled to be paid at their normal rate of pay as per their contract. For the hours that they do not work, the employee will be paid up to two thirds of their usual wage. The government will pay a third and their contribution will be capped at £697.92 per month and the employer will pay the other third. This means that the employee will earn a minimum of 77% of their normal wages each month.
The scheme has now been extended so if employers have to close their business as a result of the local or national restrictions which are put into place, the government will pay two thirds of the employee’s salary each month, up to a cap of £2,100 per month. Should this situation arise, employers will not be expected to contribute to their employees’ wages but will be asked to cover their employee’s pension contributions and national insurance contributions.
In order to qualify, the employee has to be off work for a minimum of 7 consecutive days and businesses can only claim the government grant whilst they are subject to the restrictions.
The scheme shall be in place for 6 months and will begin from the 1st November 2020.
Employers still need to have their employee’s consent to being placed on the new scheme, in a similar way to furlough and this should be documented and in writing.
We recommend preparing for this now.
Speak to your employees to explain what the new scheme is and what it means for them. If you engage with your staff now, you are more likely to get their agreement to being placed on the scheme.
We can help with preparing a Job Support Scheme agreement and for a limited time, we are offering this at a fixed fee of £250 plus vat.
If you need help with the new scheme or are interested in our offer, get in touch for more details. Call us on 0115 870 0150 or email us at support@guardianlaw.co.uk
