Making a claim for coronavirus job retention scheme

The HMRC have designed a new online portal for employers to claim under the scheme, which is currently being tested and is expected to be available by 20th April 2020.

Claims can be made no more than once every three weeks (in line with the minimum furlough periods) and the employer should calculate the amount they wish to claim for each PAYE scheme and keep records

Under the current guidance the following information will be required:

  • employer’s ePAYE reference number

  • employer’s Self-assessment UTR (for sole traders or partnerships) or Corporation Tax UTR (for companies)

  • the number of employees being furloughed

  • the names, national insurance numbers and payroll/works numbers of all the furloughed employees

  • the claim period (start and end date)

  • amount claimed (per the minimum length of furloughing of 3 consecutive weeks)

  • employer’s bank account number and sort code

  • employer’s contact name

  • employer’s phone number

Claims can be backdated to 1 March 2020 and will be paid by BACs into a UK bank account.

For claims for 99 or fewer staff, details of each furloughed employee will need to be manually entered in HMRC’s online claim system.

For 100 or more staff, employers can upload a file of the relevant information as either Excel, CSV or OpenDocument files (files ending .xls, .xlsx .csv or .ods.)

Claims will be audited retrospectively and any abuse of the scheme will be taken seriously by HMRC, who will either withhold payments or seek to recover payments made outside the terms of the scheme at a later date.

Sue Potter