Furlough scheme extended until end of October 2020

The Job Retention Scheme has supported more than 7 million people in the UK to date. At time of writing about one fifth of the UK workforce has been furloughed and the Office for Budget Responsibility currently has the cost of furlough running at around £14 billion per month. The scheme was due to expire at the end of June 2020, however – due to concerns that a sudden pull-of-the-plug will cause mass unemployment – Sunak has extended the scheme until the end of October 2020.

According to the latest announcements, the scheme will continue in its current form until the end of July 2020 but will be amended between August 2020 and October 2020 to allow furloughed staff to work part-time. Sunak stated that from August, he would ask employers to share the cost with the taxpayer, with employees continuing to receive 80% of their wages up to the current cap of £2,500 per month.

Further details regarding the changes to this scheme will be released by the end of May 2020.

Please contact Amy Cunningham with any questions.

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