UK Government Announces Eligibility Extension to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

UK Government Announces Eligibility Extension to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Employers will now be able to claim for furloughed employees that were employed on their payroll on or before 19th March 2020.

The government has announced an extention to the eligibility cut-off date for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. While originally, employees to be furloughed had to be employed and on the PAYE payroll on 28th February 2020, this has not been extended to 19th March 2020, the day before the scheme was announced.

The change is expected to benefit more than 200,000 employees affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. The government also said today that it expects the Job Retention Scheme to be fully operational next week.