Breaking: Furloughing staff - payroll date changes

The government has today updated its guidance on Coronavirus: The Job Retention Scheme for the fourth time. 

The key thing to note is that employers can now furlough staff who are on their payroll on or before 19 March 2020 provided they have notified HMRC via a 'real time information' submission on or before that date. Previously, the government said that all employees had to be on the payroll by 28 February which excluded many new starters from the scheme.  

The updated guidance also makes it clear that anyone who was made redundant after 28 February can be furloughed, even if they are not re-employed until after 19 March. That's helpful, because it means that employers can re-engage staff they have already made redundant on different types of contracts as, in many cases, their continuity of employment will have been broken. 

There's no other significant changes.

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