The eligibility cut-off date for Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended to 19 March 2020.
Under the scheme announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last month, employers can claim a grant covering 80% of the wages for a furloughed employee, subject to a cap of £2,500 a month.
However, to qualify and to protect against fraudulent claims, individuals originally had to be employed on February 28 2020. Many constituents have been in contact with me to highlight the difficulties they were facing as they were not eligible due to the cut-off date. This included residents who had just found work or were between jobs.
I and other MPs have been urging the Government to review this cut-off date to see whether coverage could be extended.
Following a review of the delivery system and to ensure the scheme helps as many people as possible, new guidance published today has confirmed the eligibility date has been extended to March 19 2020– the day before the scheme was announced.
Employers can claim for furloughed employees that were employed and on their PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020. This means that the employee must have been notified to HMRC through an RTI submission notifying payment in respect of that employee on or before 19 March 2020.
This change makes the scheme more generous while keeping the substantial fraud risks under control and is expected to benefit over 200,000 employees.
HMRC have been working at pace to delivering the scheme, which is due to be fully operational next week.
The Government's announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/furlough-scheme-cut-off-date-extended-to-19-march
Further details of the scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme