Job Retention Scheme extended to the end of June

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

The Government has today announced an extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of June 2020. This will provide much needed certainty for employers who are relying on the Scheme as a way of maintaining their workforce during the current lockdown. This announcement has come at the end of week which has seen the publication of the Treasury Direction in respect of the Scheme, as well as revisions to the both the Government guidance (extending the date by which employees needed to be on payroll with an RTI submission to HMRC from 28 February to 19 March 2020), and the associated ACAS guidance.

There remain some inconsistencies between the Treasury Direction and the Government guidance – for example, as to how SSP interacts with furlough, and whether “written notification” or “written agreement” is required – and so it seems unlikely that these will be the final version of the “scheme rules”. However, the extension will come as a welcome relief to those employers and employees alike who were otherwise facing the prospect of collective redundancy consultation procedures.

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