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Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme portal now open!

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme portal has opened this morning to allow employers to start to submit their claims for furlough wage costs.

20 April 2020

Please note: the information contained in our legal updates are correct as of the original date of publication

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme portal has opened this morning to allow employers to start to submit their claims for furlough wage costs. Guidance has also been issued to provide employers with assistance in calculating 80% of their employee’s wages, including various scenarios as examples.

Whilst differences remain between the CJRS guidance and the Treasury Direction, the declaration that employers are being asked to confirm when submitting their claim is that their claim is in accordance with HMRC guidance, not the Direction. Employers are also asked to confirm that all employees have been paid their wages before the claim was submitted or will be paid in the next payroll.

Employers will need to take care to carefully calculate their claims – the guidance is clear that only one claim can be made in any claim period, that it should be made during or shortly before running payroll, and that all employees in each period must be claimed for at one time. Employers are also asked to confirm that the information they have submitted is correct to the best of their knowledge.

Once their claim has been calculated, employers will need to have a number of pieces of information available in order to submit it – for ease of reference, a list is set out here.

The opening of the portal has been keenly awaited and will no doubt be placed under considerable pressure due to the sheer number of employers seeking reimbursement as quickly as possible. HMRC is currently indicating that claims, once checked, will be paid within 6 working days but due to the high volume of calls they are receiving, they are asking employers not to contact them unless they still haven’t received payment 10 working days after the claim was submitted.

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