Companies intending to furlough employees for the first time under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), must do so by 10 June 2020, in order to observe the three-week minimum furlough period ahead of 30 June 2020, prior to the implementation of the changes to the scheme from July – October 2020.

On 29 May 2020, when announcements were made in relation to the future of the CJRS, payroll professionals were advised that the latest date that an employee could be placed on furlough would be 10 June 2020 if they were to be included on claims made through the scheme in relation to July – October 2020. This is applicable to any employees who haven’t previously been placed on furlough.

10 June 2020 falls on Wednesday of this week so employers should be aware of this, and must place any employees they intend to claim for in the future on furlough by this date, discuss it with them, and also provide them with written notification of the arrangement.
Anyone submitting claims must also be aware that, for claims relating to periods from 1 July 2020 onwards, the number of employees included in one claim must not exceed the total number of employees claimed for on any previous claim. This is the number of employees included in any one previous claim, not the total of employees claimed for under a number of previous claims. To put this into context, if a business claimed for 40, 30 and 60 employees in various previous CJRS claims, then the maximum number of employees they could claim for in any given claim from 1 July 2020 onwards would be 60, and not the aggregate of 40,30 and 60.  

From 1 July, claim periods can no longer overlap months and employers who previously submitted claims with periods that overlapped calendar months will no longer be able to do so. This is due to the fundamental changes to the operation of the scheme from July onwards.

Employers will have until 31 July to make any claims in respect of the period to 30 June.