Emma Vennesson Comments on New Furlough Cut-Off Date for Personnel Today

It has been claimed that changes to the cut-off date for employees to be furloughed under the U.K.’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme still leave many who started new jobs last month without an income.

Labor & Employment counsel Emma Vennesson gave comment to Personnel Today regarding this issue. Venneson suggests that the requirement for furloughed employees’ data to be on a Real Time Information submission before March 19 is likely there to prevent employers from making fraudulent claims for wages for nonexistent employees.

“This new requirement is likely an attempt on HMRC’s part to prevent fraud and ensure that employers can only claim for employees and wages that HMRC were aware of before the introduction of the CJRS.,” said Vennesson. “Without that requirement, there would be a risk that employers could disingenuously add extra employees to their payroll or increase employees’ salaries, furlough them, and fraudulently claim for reimbursement from HMRC.”