Given that the advice for pregnant women is to stay at home and avoid social contact as much as possible, many pregnant women may be keen to be put on furlough leave. However given that maternity pay is calculated on the basis of pay actually received during a set 8-week period, some mothers-to-be may be [...]

Statutory maternity pay (‘SMP’) is governed by the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992. The amount of SMP is calculated on the basis of the salary actually received during the 8-week period ending immediately before the 14th week before the expected week of childbirth [see https://www.acas.org.uk/managing-your-employees-maternity-leave-and-pay/…. As such, if an employee has already commenced their [...]

Unfortunately not. This was brought up to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, last week, and the suggestion from the government is to contact your previous employer and ask to be rehired and furloughed through them, and then let go at the end of the period. This is not an option for many employees, as quite often [...]

If we run your payroll we do this for you free of charge – if you run your own payroll we will help you with guidance. The portal is likely to be fairly simple and will require some key information – PAYE Ref, Details of Each Furloughed Worker, Bank Details etc.

In short – no. There has, however, been some good news released in the last few days. There have been a number of select Employers chosen to Beta test the portal and it has worked well, and should be able to cope with 450,000 claims per hour. The expected launch date for this is 20th [...]

The NMW and NLW do not apply to furloughed workers. These can only apply to hours worked, and as a furloughed employee there are no hours worked, thus NLW and NMW do not apply.

If there is no physical cash available to pay the wages, then they cannot be paid. If all avenues have been explored, such as VAT deferrals, Time to Pay arrangements on PAYE/Corporation Tax/CIS, payment holidays on regular commitments and the business has been unable to get a loan, then the final option is to communicate [...]

The commission is not to be included in calculations for furloughed workers. If employees receive a salary + commission package, the 80% furloughed amount will be based on their salary only. Any top up on top of this is at the business’ discretion, and will not be repaid under the Job Retention Scheme.

Yes, Directors can be furloughed. They too must not be carrying out any revenue-generating activities, but they can carry out admin tasks in order to ensure their business is ready to go once the lockdown is complete. This will, however, be limited to 80% of their monthly salary, and not inclusive of any amounts taken [...]

HMRC and government guidance states that an employee is not to carry out work of any kind while furloughed. They may carry out training, for which they should be paid, but they should not carry out any operational duties.