Furlough

[curiousch]

As an employer of 4 part time employees, if I choose to furlough them on full pay for an initial period of 4 weeks... do I run my payroll with their contracted/usual hours and then do the government 80% claim back when the portal becomes available?

These are such worrying, unusual times that I don't want to make any mistakes on a situation that I have never found myself in before. Let's hope better times are ahead for us all!

Yes, so you pay them first then reclaim the 80% via HMRC portal when it becomes live.

That's generous, that you're planning to pay 100%. I think many will drop their employees income to 80%, not too unreasonable given many employees expenses, such as commuting, will have reduced. That allows them a little extra cash cushion.

Are you still paying into their pension scheme? (I've not seen any narrative on these schemes being suspended)

Given they are only part time, I thought it might be an incentive to try and meet the 100%, I know this is hard times for all and if I can I aim to help but I will just have to review it as I am unsure of how long the situation is going to last for. With regard to pension, only one is part of a scheme the others choose to opt out or weren't eligible so I will have to figure that out.

Everyone needs to pull together in these hard times so I hope that's what I can try and do. Thanks for all the advice I will take it on bird and see what our options are.

Thanks again, stay safe!

@curiousch please make sure you follow the correct procedure or you run the risk of the Govt using this as an excuse not to pay the grant.

As I understand it , if your employee contracts have a clause for lay off/short term working then you don't need to get their approval to furlough them. If it doesn't then you do. And this has to be a consultation type 'meeting' followed up with a letter which they have to sign and return to signify acceptance.

Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know but I don't trust HMRC an inch not to find any excuse not to pay the grant and 'not dotting an i' would be just the sort of excuse they would use!!! Please get advice from your HR advisor if possible.,

Blobby10 thank you for that advice. I was aware I would need everything in writing but the main reason I asked for clarification on here was for that reason as I like others am sceptical of doing something wrong and possibly not being eligible. It's a minefield and not helped but the fact my main office employee is also of on maternity and not due back for 6 weeks so this is something I am navigating myself on a short term.

It's a small family run food delivery business and the likeliness is I will still require some employee help so I may have to furlough the most vulnerable maybe.

I will have a good check on it all today and see where we need to go from here.

Thanks again :)