Good point. I have not been into it thoroughly as I am a sole trade and we get zero at y income level even though employees on even £2m a year get furlough money so it is all pretty unfair.
This which I posted on another thread and was sent to me by a firm of solicitors this week might be useful for some -
Further to our last email, there are still a number of issues arising which are going to cause practical difficulties. The main ones, in our view are summarised below. We have updated our furlough agreement which can be viewed here.
HEADLINE POINTS
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From the guidance now published this week it is essential that the employee has agreed not only to a pay reduction (if that is part of it) but has agreed (not just been told) that they must do no work. As this is a new requirement, many furlough agreements already entered into may not comply.
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Employers now revisiting their furlough agreements will be thinking what should they now be doing. The only course seems to be to seek a new agreement from the employee to cover this. It is unclear whether such an agreement can be backdated (but it would be wise to include a confirmation from the employee that they have in fact done no work since being put on furlough). If backdating turns out not to be permitted (and we may not know this for many months or longer, when court and tribunal cases on the issue have happened, or HMRC concedes the point), at least it will be cured from the point of the new agreement onwards. As a practical matter HMRC will be paying claims as submitted with the possibility of audit later, so this is perhaps a question that would arise somewhere down the line when things are, hopefully, better all round
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HMRC have announced that the portal for claims to seek reimbursement of furloughed pay will open on Monday 20th April – we will update our website when the portal is launched.
KEY ISSUES LIKELY TO CAUSE DIFFICULTIES
Confusion over the eligibility surrounding dates, as a result of new rules just introduced. The eligibility of an employee depends on him or her having been on payroll on 28 February or 19 March and a Real Time Information PAYE filing has been made for that employee on or before that date. So an employee hired on say the 27th February and paid monthly, who missed the RTI filing for February and for whom the RTI filing was not made by 19 March will not be eligible for furlough. This contradicts all previous guidance from HMRC. There is talk of a judicial review of this because employers have furloughed employees (and indeed, may have rehired them) based on the previous guidance.
Employees hired in March but for whom no RTI filing had been made by 19 March will similarly not be covered.
The treatment of holiday pay remains unclear and HMRC is refusing to provide any assistance on this.
Whereas previously guidance suggested that an employee merely needed to be notified that they were on furlough, with their agreement being needed only if contract terms were changed, this has now again suddenly changed. The rules now say that to qualify the employee must have been instructed to cease all work, and further “An employee has been instructed by the employer to cease all work in relation to their employment only if the employer and employee have agreed in writing (which may be in an electronic form such as an email) that the employee will cease all work in relation to their employment.”