Employees can now be furloughed by their employer if they were employed and on the 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.

If an employee has had numerous employers over the past year, as is probable with casual, seasonal or student employees and is being furloughed by their current employer, any former employer/s should not re-employ them to place them on the furlough scheme.

To calculate 80% of wages for employees, you must use the salary in the last pay period prior to 19th March 2020. For employers who have calculated wages based on previous guidance which stipulated that 80% should be calculated based on the employee’s salary to 28th February 2020, you may use the original calculation if you wish.

The Treasury estimates this will benefit a further 200,000 employees but, due to the way the RTI reporting system works, if new employees were not paid before 19th March they are still likely to miss out. If you have question about any of the information in this article, please head to gov.uk or give NCASS a call on 0300 124 6866.

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