Furlough grant claim calculation published #COVID19 #coronavirus

The government have published (late Friday 17th April 2020) guidance on grant application calculations for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Find out how to calculate 80% of your employee’s wages, National Insurance Contributions and pension contributions if you’ve furloughed staff due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

You can claim for 80% of your employee’s wages (even for employee’s on National Minimum Wage) – up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.

You’ll still need to pay employer National Insurance and pension contributions … and you can claim for these too.

You cannot claim for:

• additional National Insurance or pension contributions you make because you choose to top up your employee’s wages
• any pension contributions you make that are above the mandatory employer contribution

Use the calculator

A calculator will be available from 20 April 2020 to assist… calculating how much you can claim.

What to include when calculating wages

The guidance outlines what wages can and those that cannot be included as part of the calculation.

Benefits and Salary Sacrifice

The entirety of the grant received to cover an employee’s subsidised furlough pay must be paid to them in the form of money. No part of the grant should be netted off to pay for the provision of benefits or a salary sacrifice scheme.

Where the employer provides benefits to furloughed employees, including through a salary sacrifice scheme, these benefits should be in addition to the wages that must be paid under the terms of the Job Retention Scheme.

Added guidance

Further details are provided to give further clarifications on holiday pay and special types of employment income.

The calculation

Details are provided on:

• Work out the maximum wage amount you can claim
• Work out 80% of your employee’s usual wage
• Work out how much you can claim for employer National Insurance contributions
• Work out how much you can claim for employer’s pension contributions

How to claim

The online service will be available on 20 April 2020.

The main points:

• You can only claim for periods of furlough and do that in advance
• You cannot make more than one claim during a claim period
• The full amount you claim in respect of these must be paid or you will need to repay the money back to HMRC.

Employers need to familiarise the requirements to ensure that their claim is accurate and appropriate.

PAYadvice.UK 17/4/2020