Redundancy and furlough extension?

If staff have been made redundant recently are we supposed to reverse this and put them on furlough?

Didn't find your answer?

I am trying to get a handle on what the intention of the new Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme extension is with regards to redundancies, but am just going round in circles trying to figure it out and am keen to hear other's thoughts on the matter?

Where staff have been made redundant so that their final day was October 31st and there is no realistic prospect of there being work for them in 2021, are we supposed to bring them back onto payroll so that they can benefit from the scheme or is the intention only that it is used when there is potentially a job to come back to?  Instinctively it feels like it should be the latter, but then the section (see below) about it being used during notice periods and bringing back people who have been already made redundant appears to imply the opposite.

I don't want to take claim what isn't due and it would be a lot easier at this point to just leave things as they stand, but equally I want to do right by the people who have been let go and ensure they get the full support that the government is offering.

Has there been anything official that would clarify this?

If you’ve made your employees redundant

 

Where you must make redundancies, you should do so in accordance with the normal rules. This includes giving a notice period and consulting staff before a final decision is reached. You can continue to claim for a furloughed employee who is serving a statutory notice period, however grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments.

 

The government is reviewing whether employers should be eligible to claim for employees serving contractual or statutory notice periods and will change the approach for claim periods starting on or after 1 December 2020, with further guidance published in late November.

If you make an employee redundant, you should base statutory redundancy and statutory notice pay on their normal wage rather than the reduced furlough wage.

 

For claim periods after 1 November 2020

If you made employees redundant, or they stopped working for you on or after 23 September 2020 you can re-employ them and put them on furlough. This applies as long as the employee was employed by you on September 23 and you made a PAYE RTI submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-which-employees-you-can-put-on-furlough-to-use-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme#if-youve-made-your-employees-redundant

Replies (3)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By Paul Crowley
12th Nov 2020 17:43

Can not must
The idea as I understand it is to protect viable jobs
Not replace the welfare benefits system

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Hugo Fair
12th Nov 2020 19:02

You asked what the intention was ... not what to do.

Relying on my usual levels of cynicism (and experience of working in govt), I'd say the intention was for the govt to be able to announce as small as possible a number of 'lost jobs' for as long as possible. So nothing to do with protecting the job (or employee) - and with little concern as to the effectiveness of the expenditure.

From a moral perspective (always a dangerous approach when dealing with legislation) it would seem obvious to only do this in order to protect a viable job (or at least one which you still hope will be viable in a few months' time).

On the other hand, with legislation and guidance so woolly that even an amorous sheep might be put off ... it's more of a charter for lawyers to print money until any case law has been established.

In the meantime, employers have to make their own judgements ... and be prepared to own the consequences!

Thanks (1)
Replying to Hugo Fair:
avatar
By Paul Crowley
12th Nov 2020 19:16

I tell clients regularly that real law is what I read in Taxation tax cases pages 6 & 7
Ignore HMRC and Gov .uk
Only the Richards know the real rules as law is decided by courts not HMRC

On that basis as of yet the law is unknown

Thanks (0)