Rules for extended Furlough Scheme – Important change coming on notice periods?

Louise Walker
Legal Director
View Profile

On Tuesday evening, the government published its revised rules for the extended period of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Furlough Scheme) through to its new end date of 31 March 2021.

The Furlough Scheme will operate largely as it did in the period up to 31 October 2020, but there are a few key differences to be aware of:

• The government has signaled that it intends to change its approach to reimbursing furlough pay costs for employees serving out notice periods on furlough. Any changes will take effect from 1 December 2020 and the government will say more about what it intends to do towards the end of the month. For now, it would be prudent to assume that furlough costs for employees on notice periods might not be reclaimable after 30 November 2020.
• It is possible to furlough (or flexibly furlough) employees who have never been furloughed before, but for people who have not been furloughed before, the calculation period for working out their normal wage will be slightly different. Further details are available here.
• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/calculate-how-much-you-can-claim-using-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme
• If you want any new arrangement for furlough or flexible furlough to have retrospective effect, backdated to 1 November 2020, you will need to have obtained the employee’s agreement to this by the end of tomorrow, 13 November 2020.

You can see a list of all of the new furlough scheme guidance documents available on gov.uk here.

Retained clients of Just Employment Law should have received our JEL Client Coronavirus Update earlier this afternoon, along with a full set of updated furlough scheme templates. If you need anything further or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0141 331 5150.

Topics: Coronavirus, Furlough