Guidance

Check if you can claim for your employees' wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Find out if you’re eligible and how much you can claim to cover wages for employees on temporary leave ('furlough') due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published
26 March 2020
Last updated
15 October 2021 — See all updates

This guidance was withdrawn on

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ended on 30 September 2021.

You can:

To use the scheme, the steps you’ll need to take are:

  1. Check if you can claim

  2. Check which employees you can put on furlough

  3. Steps to take before calculating your claim

  4. Calculate how much you should claim

  5. Claim for your employees’ wages online

  6. Report a payment in PAYE Real Time Information (RTI)

For periods starting on or after 1 May 2021, you can claim for employees who were employed on 2 March 2021, as long as you have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee. You do not need to have previously claimed for an employee before the 2 March 2021 to claim for periods starting on or after 1 May 2021.

From 1 July 2021, the level of grant will be reduced each month and you will be asked to contribute towards the cost of your furloughed employees’ wages.

You do not need to have previously claimed for an employee before the 2 March 2021 to claim.

Employers can furlough employees for any amount of time and any work pattern, while still being able to claim the grant for the hours not worked.

You will need to pay for employer National Insurance contributions and pension costs. Find out more information on employer contributions to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

If you’ve already worked out how much you can claim, you can claim for wages online through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

HMRC will check claims. Payments may be withheld or need to be paid back if a claim is found to be fraudulent or based on incorrect information. You can report suspected fraud in the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grants are not classed as state aid.

Who can claim

You must have:

  • created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before 2 March 2021 for periods starting on or after 1 May 2021
  • enrolled for PAYE online
  • a UK, Isle of Man or Channel Island bank account

Any entity with a UK payroll can apply, including businesses, charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities.

If you receive public funding

If you have staff costs that are publicly funded (even if you’re not in the public sector), you should use that money to continue paying your staff, and not furlough your staff.

Organisations can use the scheme if they are not fully funded by public grants and they should contact their sponsor department or respective administration for further guidance.

If you’re an administrator

Where a company is being taken under the management of an administrator, the administrator can furlough and claim for employees.

Administrators should only use the scheme if there is a reasonable likelihood of retaining the employees. For example, this could be as a result of an administration and pursuit of a sale of the business.

Employees you can claim for

Find out which employees you can put on furlough and claim for.

Agreeing to furlough employees

Employers should discuss with their staff and make any changes to the employment contract by agreement. When employers are making decisions in relation to the process, including deciding who to offer furlough to, equality and discrimination laws will apply in the usual way.

To be eligible for the grant, employers must have confirmed to their employee (or reached collective agreement with a trade union) in writing that they have been furloughed. You must:

  • make sure that the agreement is consistent with employment, equality and discrimination laws
  • keep a written record of the agreement for 5 years
  • keep records of how many hours your employees work and the number of hours they are furloughed (such as, not working)

The employee does not have to provide a written response and you do not need to place all your employees on furlough.

You can:

  • fully furlough employees – they cannot undertake any work for you while furloughed full time
  • flexibly furlough employees – they can work for any amount of time, and any work pattern but they cannot do any work for you during hours that you record them as being on furlough

If you flexibly furlough employees, you will also need to agree this with the employee (or reach collective agreement with a trade union) and keep a new written agreement that confirms the new furlough arrangement.

You do not need to place all your employees on furlough and you can continue to fully furlough employees if you wish. Employees cannot undertake any work for you during time that you record them as being on furlough.

Flexible furlough agreements

There is no minimum furlough period, agreed flexible furlough agreements can last any amount of time. Employees can enter into a flexible furlough agreement more than once.

Although flexible furlough agreements can last any amount of time, unless otherwise specified the period that you claim for must be for a minimum claim period of 7 calendar days.

When your employees are on furlough

During hours which you record your employee as being on furlough, you cannot ask them to do any work for you that:

  • makes money for your organisation or any organisation linked or associated with your organisation
  • provides services for your organisation or any organisation linked or associated with your organisation

Your employee can:

  • take part in training
  • volunteer for another employer or organisation
  • work for another employer (if contractually allowed)

Paying employee taxes and pension contributions

Your employees will still pay the taxes they normally pay out of their wages.

You must deduct and pay to HMRC income tax and employee National Insurance contributions on the full amount that you pay the employee, including any scheme grant.

You must also pay to HMRC the employer National Insurance contributions on the full amount that you pay the employee, including any scheme grant.

You must report these payments through a Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC on or before the pay date.

Your employee will also still pay pension contributions (both employer and automatic contributions from the employee), unless the employee has opted out or stopped saving into their pension. You are not able to claim for employer National Insurance contributions and pension contributions.

Keeping employee rights

Employees still have the same rights at work, including:

  • Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
  • annual leave
  • maternity and other parental rights
  • rights against unfair dismissal
  • redundancy payments

Grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments. HMRC will continue to monitor businesses after the scheme has closed.

Holiday pay

Furloughed employees continue to accrue leave as per their employment contract.

You can only place employees on furlough if coronavirus is affecting your operations.

You should not place employees on furlough just because they are going to be on paid leave.

The employer and employee can agree to vary holiday entitlement as part of the furlough agreement, however almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of statutory paid annual leave each year which they cannot go below.

Employees can take holiday whilst on furlough. If they are flexibly furloughed then any hours taken as holiday during the claim period should be counted as furloughed hours rather than working hours. You should not put your employees on furlough for a period just because they are on holiday for that period. This means that employees should only be placed on furlough because your operations have been affected by coronavirus and not just because they are on paid leave. This applies equally during any peak holiday period.

Working Time Regulations (WTR) require holiday pay to be paid at the employee’s normal rate of pay or, where the rate of pay varies, calculated on the basis of the average pay received by the employee in the last 52 working weeks (12 weeks in Northern Ireland). Therefore, if a furloughed employee takes holiday, the employer should pay their usual holiday pay in accordance with the Working Time Regulations.

Employers will be obliged to pay employees who are on holiday additional amounts over the grant, though will have the flexibility to restrict when leave can be taken if there is a business need and the correct notice is given. This applies for both the furlough period and the recovery period.

If an employee usually works bank holidays then the employer can agree that this is included in the grant payment. If the employee usually takes the bank holiday as leave then the employer would either have to top up their usual holiday pay, or give the employee a day of holiday in lieu.

Find out more information on holiday pay during furlough.

Employees working for a different employer

If contractually allowed, your employees are permitted to work for another employer whilst you have placed them on furlough.

For any employer that takes on a new employee, the new employer should ensure they complete the starter checklist form correctly. If the employee is furloughed from another employment, they should complete ‘statement C’ on the list.

If your employee does volunteer work

A furloughed employee can take part in volunteer work during hours which you record your employee as being on furlough as long as it is for another employer or organisation.

If your employee does training

Furloughed employees can engage in training during hours which you record your employee as being on furlough, as long as in undertaking the training the employee does not provide services to, or generate revenue for, or on behalf of their organisation or a linked or associated organisation. Furloughed employees should be encouraged to undertake training.

Any employee would not be regarded as directly or actively engaged in relevant research and development during this training period, and should not be included in any research and development or Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC) claims.

Find out more information on training that is available.

Where training is undertaken by furloughed employees during hours which you record your employee as being on furlough, at the request of their employer, they are entitled to be paid at least their appropriate national minimum wage for this time. In most cases, the furlough payment of 80% of an employee’s regular wage, up to the value of £2,500, will provide sufficient monies to cover these training hours. However, where the time spent training attracts a minimum wage entitlement in excess of the furlough payment, employers will need to pay the additional wages (see National Minimum Wage Section for more details).

Furloughed employees working as union or non-union representatives or as pension trustees

During hours which you record your employee as being on furlough, employees who are union or non-union representatives may undertake duties and activities for the purpose of individual or collective representation of employees or other workers. However in doing this, they must not provide services to or generate revenue for, or on behalf of your organisation or a linked or associated organisation.

During hours which you record your employee as being on furlough, employees who are pension scheme trustees or trustee directors of a corporate trustee may undertake trustee duties in relation to the pension scheme. However, a professional, independent pension scheme trustee who has been furloughed by the independent trustee company cannot undertake trustee work that would provide services to or generate revenue for, or on behalf of, the independent trustee company or any organisation linked or associated with that independent trustee company during hours which you record them as being on furlough.

Before you claim

You will need to work out how much you can claim through the scheme. HMRC will retain the right to retrospectively audit all aspects of your claim.

Employers should discuss with their staff and make any changes to the employment contract by agreement.

Employers may need to seek legal advice on the process. If sufficient numbers of staff are involved, it may be necessary to engage collective consultation processes to procure agreement to changes to terms of employment.

HMRC cannot provide your employees with details of claims you make on their behalf. Help us by keeping your employees informed, answering any questions that they might have. Please ask them not to contact HMRC.

Details of your claim that will be publicly available

If you claim for periods starting on or after 1 December 2020, HMRC will publish details of your claim on GOV.UK. We are doing this to:

  • meet our transparency commitments
  • deter fraudulent claims

We will publish this information monthly, updating the previous month’s information with any amendments. You can:

Furloughed employees can see if they were included in a grant for previous claim periods in their personal tax account.

If you have repaid the full amount of your grant for the published months, they will no longer be able to see that information.

This information will be updated monthly with the latest available data.

Report fraud to HMRC

HMRC will check claims, and payments may be withheld or need to be paid back if a claim is found to be fraudulent or based on incorrect information.

The public can report fraud to HMRC if they have evidence to suggest an employer on the list is abusing the scheme.

Contacting HMRC

Use HMRC’s digital assistant to find more information about the coronavirus support schemes.

You can also contact HMRC if you cannot get the help you need online. We are receiving a very high numbers of calls. Do not contact HMRC unnecessarily, this will help us to manage our essential public services during these challenging times.

There is no right of appeal if you’re not eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

You should contact us if you think you do not meet the eligibility criteria due to:

  • an HMRC error
  • unreasonable delays caused by HMRC

You can use our complaints service if you’re not satisfied with how we have handled your claim.

Other help and support

You can watch videos and register for free webinars to learn more about the support available to help you deal with the economic impacts of coronavirus.

You can read previous versions of this guidance on The National Archives.

Updates to this page

Published 26 March 2020
Last updated 15 October 2021 + show all updates

  1. Information updated because the last claim date for September has passed.

  2. Information updated because the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ended on 30 September 2021.

  3. Updated dates in 'Details of your claim that will be publicly available' section.

  4. For claims relating to August and September 2021, the government will pay 60% of wages up to a maximum cap of £1,875 for the hours the employee is on furlough. Claims for furlough days in August 2021 must be made by 14 September 2021.

  5. Updated with Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme end date and information on when claims for September must be submitted.

  6. Details of when your claim will be publicly available has been updated.

  7. From 1 August 2021, the government will pay 60% of wages for furlough employees up to £1,875. From 1 July 2021, employers will top up employees’ wages to make sure they receive 80% of wages (up to £2,500).

  8. Information about changes from 1 July 2021 has been added and claims for furlough days in June 2021 must be made by 14 July 2021.

  9. Claims for furlough days in May 2021 must be made by 14 June 2021.

  10. Claims for furlough days in April 2021 must be made by 14 May 2021.

  11. Claims for furlough days in March 2021 must be made by 14 April 2021.

  12. Sections about the periods for when you can make a claim, if your employee does training and details of when the claim will be publicly available have been updated.

  13. The scheme has been extended until 30 September 2021. From 1 July 2021, the level of grant will be reduced each month and employers will be asked to contribute towards the cost of furloughed employees’ wages. New information on claim periods from May 2021 added.

  14. Claims for furlough days in February 2021 must be made by 15 March 2021 and information about how employees can use their personal tax account to see if they were included in any December 2020 claims has been added.

  15. Added translation

  16. Updated the contact HMRC paragraph and included there is no right of appeal.

  17. Added translation

  18. New 'Details of your claim that will be publicly available' section added. Including links to employer claim data publication and guidance on how to ask HMRC not to publish claim details.

  19. Information added on how to request that HMRC do not publish claim information.

  20. Added Welsh translation.

  21. Updated to remove reference to January review and reflect that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended to 30 April 2021. Minor update to mirror holiday pay guidance on other pages.

  22. Edited the 'Employer claim information that HMRC will make public' section with information that from February HMRC will publish information about employers who claim for periods starting on or after 1 December 2020. From February furloughed employees will be able to see details of claims made for them after 1 December 2020 in their Personal Tax Account on GOV.UK.

  23. An updated Welsh translation has been added.

  24. Guidance updated to reflect that 30 November claims deadline has now passed. Section on holiday pay updated with further clarity on when employees can be furloughed.

  25. Section on employer claim information updated with details of upcoming claim band ranges.

  26. Updated Welsh translation.

  27. The sections 'Who can claim' and 'Employer claim information that HMRC will make public' have been updated.

  28. Added information relating to employer information that HMRC will make public.

  29. The scheme has been extended. This guidance has been updated with details of how to claim for periods after 1 November 2020. 30 November 2020 is the last day employers can submit or change claims for periods ending on or before 31 October 2020.

  30. Information call out updated to state that the scheme is being extended until 31 March 2021.

  31. Information call out has been updated to confirm that the guidance on this page reflects the rules for the period until 31 October 2020. This page will be updated to include the rules relating to the scheme extension shortly.

  32. Added translation

  33. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is being extended until December 2020.

  34. Information call out has been updated - the scheme is now closed. 30 November 2020 is the last date you can submit claims.

  35. The information call out at the top of the page has been updated with the changes to the scheme. 30 November 2020 is the last day employers can submit or change claims for periods ending on or before 30 October 2020.

  36. The information call out at the top of the page has been updated with the changes to the scheme from 1 September.

  37. A link to a previous version of this guide has been added to the information box at the top of the page.

  38. The information call out has been updated to tell employers about changes to the scheme from 1 Aug 2020. New section added on the maximum number of employees you can claim for. Information about the minimum furlough period removed throughout and from the section on minimum furlough periods.

  39. Contact section has been updated with information about complaints.

  40. Adjusted text to add clarity to 'Paying employee taxes and pension contributions' section and added wording to section on employee rights to make it clear that you can continue to claim for a furloughed employee who is serving a statutory notice period.

  41. Page updated with information that employee taxes and pension contribution payments must be paid directly to HMRC. Also added information on holiday pay that flexibly furloughed employees can be recorded as on furlough during time spent on holiday.

  42. The page has been updated with information about how the scheme is changing.

  43. Information in the box at the top of the page updated with how the scheme is changing.

  44. Page updated with information about how the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is changing.

  45. Information added about the extension of the scheme. Information added for workers that are furloughed that want to volunteer. 'Employees that you can claim for' section moved to a new guide called 'Check which employees you can put on furlough to use the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme'.

  46. Added links to apprenticeship learning arrangements for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Added a link to shared parental pay guidance and a new section for maternity allowance.

  47. Link to the webinar help and support page for businesses affected by coronavirus (COVID-19), has been added.

  48. The date for the new consolidated PAYE scheme has been updated.

  49. Information added on union and non-union representatives, company directors with an annual pay period, TUPE transfers, employees who started family-related statutory pay on or after 25 April 2020 and state aid.

  50. New information has been added on collective agreement reached with a trade union. Clarified eligibility criteria, including for employees on fixed-term contracts.

  51. The online service you'll use to claim is now available: www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wages-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

  52. Details of what you'll need to make a claim have been moved to www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wages-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

  53. New information added on scheme extension, fraud, claims for employees you made redundant or who stopped working for you, fixed term contracts, agency workers and retaining records. Also, a new guide has been published with information on holiday pay, employees returning from family-related statutory leave and sick pay, how to treat grant payments in Real Time Information. Plus, more information on how to calculate the claim for 80% of your employees’ wages, how much you can claim for National Insurance and pension contributions and how to claim.

  54. Updated information on payroll date and eligibility.

  55. New information on eligibility and pension contributions has been added.

  56. This guidance has been updated with more information about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

  57. First published.

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