Furlough | Employers set to cover part of staff wages

Following the briefing by Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday (Monday 25, 2020) in which it was announced that from the June 15, all non-essential retailers will be able to reopen in England, changes to the pre-existing furlough scheme set out by Chancellor Rishi Sunak are also set to be implemented.

These changes, according a report published by The Times, will require businesses to cover 20% to 30% of furloughed employees’ wages from August – a measure that the Government has stated will help to reduce the ‘vast burden’ of the coronavirus crisis on the country’s financial system.

On May 12, Sunak confirmed that UK businesses would see an extension to the job retention scheme that made up the basis of his plan to prevent wide-scale redundancies throughout the nation.

It was confirmed that businesses could continue to rely on the scheme for a further four months, but that changes would be implemented to the way in which the scheme operated. Currently, around one-quarter of UK businesses have opted to utilise the scheme to furlough workers.