Following the surprising extension to the CJRS in November, there are a number of points of guidance that those making claims will find useful.
These are as follows:
Claims for furlough days in November 2020 must be submitted by 14 December 2020
CJRS and furlough claims post 1 December
For claim periods starting on or after 1 December 2020, you cannot claim for any days on or after 1 December 2020 during which the furloughed employee was serving a contractual or statutory notice period for the employer (this includes people serving notice of retirement or resignation).
If an employee subsequently starts a contractual or statutory notice period on a day covered by a previously submitted claim, you will need to make an adjustment.
If you make an employee redundant, you should base statutory redundancy and statutory notice pay on their normal wage rather than the reduced furlough wage.
Reasonable excuses for a late CJRS claim
HMRC may accept a claim made after the relevant deadline if you had a reasonable excuse for failing to make a claim in time, despite taking reasonable care to do so and you then claimed without delay after the excuse no longer applied. You may have reasonable excuse if for example:
- your partner or another close relative died shortly before the claim deadline
- you had an unexpected stay in hospital that prevented you from dealing with your claim
- you had a serious or life-threatening illness, including Coronavirus related illnesses, which prevented you from making your claim (and no one else could claim for you)
- a period of self-isolation prevented you from making your claim (and no one else could make the claim for you)
- your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online claim or service issues with HMRC online services prevented you from making your claim
- a fire, flood or theft prevented you from making your claim
- postal delays that you could not have predicted prevented you from making your claim
- delays related to a disability you have prevented you from making your claim
- a HMRC error prevented you from making your claim
HMRC will not consider reasonable excuses in advance of a claim deadline. If you want to delete a claim in the online service, you must do this within 72 hours of starting it.
