Due to Covid-19, HMRC have released a temporary Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme where if you cannot maintain your workforce due to severely affected business operations, you can furlough employees and apply for a grant that covers 80% of their usual monthly salary, up to £2,500 a month.
To check if you are eligible for this scheme and employees you can claim for, please see HMRC's guidance below:
Check if you can claim for your employees' wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Please note, in order to make a claim, you must have:
- created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before 19 March 2020
- enrolled for PAYE online
- a UK bank account
This guide explains how to process the deducted pay for a furloughed employee.
Once completed, you must then make any claims on HMRC's portal:
Claim for wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Step 1.
Navigate to Payroll > Overview and select the pay frequency of Monthly, Weekly or Fortnightly and then select the relevant period.
Step 2.
Click on Process beside the employee you wish to process payroll for.
Step 3.
As the grant will cover up to 80% of the monthly salary, up to £2,500. Depending on the amount you wish to pay your employee, you can leave the basic pay figure as the default which amounts to the full pay (100%) of the employee's monthly salary, otherwise, you can manually calculate 80% of their full pay or £2,500 and input this figure in the Basic Pay field.
The system will then automatically calculate the PAYE and NI based on the basic pay amount figure alongside the YTD figures.
Step 4.
You must then hit Complete to finalise the employee payslip. You must then file an RTIs as per normal by heading to Payroll > RTI > File FPS.
Once completed, you must then make any claims on HMRC's portal:
Claim for wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme