The Government has issued various guidance documents on the operation of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. It should be noted that the documents issued are guidance only and not legislation. All employers are urged to consider carefully the terms of the Government guidance (which is being updated periodically) to minimise the risk of any claims being rejected by HMRC.

This briefing note has been updated to 6 August 2020 to include changes made by the revised Government Scheme guidance which was issued on 17 July, 28 July and 3 August.
Key information added since the last version of the briefing note is as follows:-

• Confirmation that the grant can be claimed in respect of a contractual notice period following a redundancy consultation;
• Details on the new law for calculating certain statutory payments of furloughed employees;
• More information on HMRC’s new powers if you incorrectly claim under the Scheme; and
• Further information on the Job Retention Bonus.

To be able to claim under the Scheme from 1 July, employees had to have been furloughed for a three week continuous period between 1 March to 30 June. All claims under the Scheme to 30 June had to be submitted by 31 July.

This document primarily focuses on how the Scheme will operate from 1 July but still contains details of the Scheme prior to 30 June where the information remains relevant to claims under the Scheme from 1 July.

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