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Coronavirus Employees' Help
Full info on the extended furlough scheme, sick pay and more

The furlough scheme will now run until the end of September after it was extended for another five months. Until then, the state will continue to cover up to 80% of your wage if you can't work - this is still the case for many employees despite some lockdown restrictions beginning to ease. This guide explains how furlough works, plus sets out what other help's available for employees, such as statutory sick pay and working-from-home tax support.
Important: The info below is the best we have currently, but as this is a fast-changing situation we're updating this guide all the time. If you've a question that isn't covered below or in the other coronavirus guides, please email it to us (we can't respond with personal advice but we'll try to add answers in these guides).

Looking for other coronavirus help? This guide has info for employees. Also see:
- Coronavirus self-employed & small limited co help for SEISS grant info.
- Coronavirus universal credit & benefits for benefits updates.
- Coronavirus finance & bills help for mortgages, debts and household bills updates.
- Coronavirus life in lockdown for the latest on supermarkets, MOTs etc.
- Coronavirus travel rights for the latest on holidays and refunds.
Plus we've specific help on: Wedding cancellation rights | Ryanair refunds | Discounts for NHS staff | WFH tax reclaiming | Bounce Back Loans | Payment holidays
In this guide
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Furlough will now run until the end of Sept – how it works and how much you can get
The furlough scheme, which launched last spring, is specifically designed to help employers who are struggling to pay their staff as a result of coronavirus – for example, where restrictions force a business to part or fully close, or where employees are unable to carry out their work or have no work to do. This is how the scheme works:
- The furlough scheme has now been extended until 30 September 2021. After the most recent extension the scheme was meant to end on 30 April, but it's now been extended for another five months. This is the fourth time the scheme's been extended.
- Employees on furlough will continue to get 80% of their salary for hours not worked, up to £2,500/month. This will remain the case until the scheme ends.
- Until 30 June an employee's furloughed wage will be covered entirely by the state. Employers will have to cover any pension and National Insurance costs though.
- From 1 July employers will be asked to contribute more - but employees will still get the same amount. From 1 July, the state will only cover 70% of an employee's furloughed wage, up to £2,187.50/month, with employers required to cover the remaining 10% of the 80%. Then from 1 August, the state will only cover 60% of an employee's furloughed wage, up to £1,875/month, with employers required to cover the remaining 20%.
- Employers across the UK can use the scheme – even if they haven't before. So those in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland should also be able to apply. It's open to small, medium and large employers, and those which are charitable or not-for-profit – and crucially your employer doesn't previously need to have used the furlough scheme.
- You DON'T need to have been furloughed before to take part. However, depending what period you're claiming for you need to have been on your employer's payroll at a certain date to take part:
- For any furlough claims up until 30 April you need to have been on your employer's PAYE payroll on or before 30 October 2020 to be eligible. To be precise, your employer must have made a Real Time Information payroll submission on your behalf on or before 30 October 2020.
- For any furlough claims from 1 May until the end of September you need to have been on your employer's PAYE payroll on 2 March 2021 to be eligible. To be precise, your employer must have made a Real Time Information payroll submission on your behalf on or before 2 March 2021.
- Been made redundant or left your job since late September? You CAN be rehired and furloughed. This applies if you were employed on 23 September 2020 and have since been made redundant or left your position voluntarily. (To be precise, your employer must have made a Real Time Information payroll submission on your behalf on or before 30 October 2020 AND you must have been made redundant or left voluntarily after 23 September 2020). We've more information on how this works below.
If you're rehired in March or April 2021 though, you run the risk of being ineligible for furlough from 1 May onwards – we explain why below.
- You WILL be able to work part-time while on furlough. Your employer can either put you on furlough full-time, or you'll be able to work part-time and be furloughed for the hours you don't work. Your employer will have to cover your wages at the normal rate for any hours you do work. For more information, see below.
- You can't work for your employer during the hours you're furloughed. This includes your normal work obligations and anything beyond your usual remit. However, you can work for another employer while furloughed (if your contract allows this) or volunteer elsewhere.
- Employees on all types of contract can take part. This includes those on zero-hours contracts and fixed-term contracts, as well as agency workers (including those employed by umbrella companies) and supply teachers. This was confirmed by the Treasury in guidance it published on 10 November 2020.
- Those who are 'clinically extremely vulnerable' to coronavirus can continue to be furloughed. As of April, people who have been classified as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' are no longer being advised to shield, and to not travel into the workplace. However, your employer can still furlough you if you remain unwilling to travel into the workplace but you're unable to work from home, even though the official shielding advice now ended. This is at the employer's discretion though.
Buried within the rules is a crucial fact. Those who were on the payroll on 23 September 2020 (to be precise, your employer must have made a Real Time Information payroll submission on your behalf on or before 30 October 2020) and have been made redundant afterwards (or left voluntarily) can be rehired and placed on furlough.
The Treasury has also confirmed that this fact applies to those staff who left voluntarily too.
Of course there is only a limited chance an employer will rehire you, but it is worth asking. And if they question it, then you can show them that this is the actual text from the Government website.
"If you made employees redundant, or they stopped working for you on or after 23 September 2020 you can re-employ them and put them on furlough. This applies as long as the employee was employed by you on 23 September 2020 and you made a PAYE RTI submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee."
Yet the decision is totally at their discretion. It's worth remembering the intention of furlough is to provide temporary income to staff in 'viable' jobs after the pandemic. So the most likely circumstances where an employer will do this is where they have made you redundant temporarily to protect their cash flow, having assumed furlough would end, and think they may need staff later on. There may be a cost to the employer as they will need to cover any employer national insurance and pension contributions (though this tends not to apply for lower-paid workers).
So if you are in this situation, it is worth checking.
Rehired and furloughed in March or April 2021? Your eligibility for furlough might change from May
For furlough claims from the period 1 May onwards, to be eligible you'll need to have been on your employer's payroll on 2 March 2021.
This presents an issue if you are or were rehired by your old employer in March or April 2021. While you might be eligible for furlough until 30 April, this doesn't mean you'll necessarily be eligible for furlough from 1 May – that's because you'll need to have been on your employer's payroll on 2 March 2021.
Currently furloughed? You can work part-time
Your employer can have you work for it on a part-time basis, while furloughing you for the remaining hours or weeks. Your employer will have to pay your wage for any hours that you are in work.
Here's how being on furlough for some hours but working your other hours happens in practice...
- There's no limit on the number of hours you can work. For example, if you work a 40-hour week and your employer wants to, it can get you to work 39 hours and then furlough you for the remaining hour. The amount of time you work each week can also vary over the month, with employers varying it week by week.
- When you are working, you should be paid your normal wage for those hours. For the hours you're not working, you'll be covered by furlough pay, so you'll get at least 80% of your normal wage. Let's run through an example of how work and furlough pay could interact:
Let's assume you work a 40-hour week, and you earn £1,000 a month for that. On furlough, you don't work and you get £800 a month.
Yet if you went back to work for 10 hours a week, that's a quarter of your normal working time, so you'd earn £250 a month for the work you do. Yet you're still furloughed for 30 hours a week, so you get three quarters of your monthly furlough pay – that's £600.
Adding it up, you'd get a total of £850 a month working those 10 hours, compared with £800 on full furlough.
Can I work one hour on and one hour off?
Of course, for some customer-facing workers who are paid per client, such as hairdressers, the workplace restrictions imposed because of coronavirus might mean reduced customer footfall when you actually restart work.
This will likely make the transition back to work financially challenging for many of these workers, as for the hours you're physically at work you won't be able to claim furlough pay – you can't, for instance, claim furlough pay for three hours of work that you've 'lost' through being at work but having to make the workplace Covid-safe, rather than seeing clients.
A message from Martin to the up to three million EXCLUDED from support
Note. This section was written in 2020, but much of this section still stands.
Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: "When the Chancellor's financial support schemes first came out, they were rightly lauded for protecting millions of people's jobs and incomes in this unprecedented health and economic catastrophe. At the time, I said in one interview I'd give it an A-grade, but what'd really count is how they'd help those who'd fallen through the cracks.
"Yet whether it's new starter furlough or self-employed support, freelance PAYE, limited company directors, dental nurses, shielders whose firms won't furlough and many more – those cracks are now fissures, with up to three million people desperate, without help or support. And so that grade has degraded.
"All my attempts to be allocated a journalistic question at the Downing Street press conferences about this have been turned down, so thank you to Andrew Marr who raised it, in my name, with the Chancellor on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show.
"Listening to it will not make many hopeful. And indeed if you're in this situation, while you can hope for the best, it's best to plan for the worst. There's a new group, Excluded UK, set up as a community interest company by three people to try and give a voice to those missing out. It's early days, but at least it means there's a voice being heard, aiming to raise awareness."
Andrew Marr discusses the excluded with Chancellor Rishi Sunak on 14 June 2020. Content shared courtesy of The Andrew Marr Show / BBC.
You can get statutory sick pay from day one
If you need to take time off work due to becoming unwell from coronavirus, you'll be entitled to your usual sick leave and sick pay. For those whose employers don't offer sick pay, you might be eligible for statutory sick pay (SSP) instead. You MAY ALSO be entitled to SSP if you need to self-isolate and are unable to work from home – including if you've been instructed to under the coronavirus contact tracing schemes.
- How much is statutory sick pay? Statutory sick pay (SSP) currently stands at £95.85 a week. NOTE: Your employer may also offer sick pay which is worth more than the statutory amount if this is outlined in your contract.
- How do I qualify and when can I claim? To qualify, you must be employed and earn an average of at least £120 a week to be entitled to it (see full eligibility criteria). If you earn under £120/week and you already claim universal credit, log in to your online journal, update your details and your universal credit award should be boosted in line with your drop in earnings. If you're not already claiming, apply for universal credit and if you need cash urgently, request an 'advance' payment. In addition:
- SSP is payable from DAY ONE where you're ill with coronavirus or self-isolating due to coronavirus. If you are off sick for any other reason (ie, not coronavirus-related), standard rules apply and SSP will kick in from day four, not day one.
- If self-isolating it must be for an official reason. This includes if you have coronavirus or you or someone in your household has coronavirus symptoms, or if you've been told to self-isolate by a doctor, NHS 111 or under the contact tracing schemes – England (Test and Trace), Scotland (Test and Protect), Wales (Test, Trace and Protect) and Northern Ireland (Test and Trace).
- How do I claim? SSP is paid through your employer, so you must notify them. You can claim from day one of coronavirus self-isolation – though if your work normally offers more generous sick pay, you may be able to get that. If you then proceed to develop Covid-19 symptoms, or if you're unwell with another illness, you can continue to get SSP for 28 weeks.
Employers should also be flexible about requiring evidence for sick leave from employees, for example, if you're unable to provide a doctor's note due to being in self-isolation. If you're not unwell or in quarantine, but your employer asks you not to come to work, you should receive your full pay. For full help on your employment rights during the coronavirus outbreak, see the ACAS website.
Self-isolating ahead of surgery? You could also qualify for SSP. If you're told to self-isolate by a healthcare professional ahead of surgery, then you might also be eligible for SSP. It's payable from day one, but you'll need to self-isolate for at least four days prior to surgery to qualify (or three days, with surgery taking place on the fourth). The other SSP eligibility rules will also apply (ie, employed and earning at least £120/week).
Are you 'clinically extremely vulnerable'? Shielding advice has now ended, but you can still ask your employer to furlough you
As of April, the Government is no longer advising those people deemed 'clinically extremely vulnerable' to coronavirus to shield and to not travel into the workplace.
This means that you're no longer able to use shielding because you're 'clinically extremely vulnerable' – which might previously have meant you were unable to work – as a reason to claim statutory sick pay, even if you still don't want to travel into the workplace but you're unable to work from home. However, there is this option available:
- You can still be furloughed by your employer EVEN whilst shielding advice is paused. Employers have the discretion to choose to furlough someone via the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, including people who were previously shielding and remain unwilling to come into the workplace, even though official shielding advice has now ended. However, this is down to your employer if they want to do so – so your first port of call is to speak to your employer.

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Looking after children and your rights at work
With schools now open again, many frazzled parents are breathing a sigh of relief. However, for those still juggling or having to deal with a temporary closure due to coronavirus, here's what you can do:
Employers CAN furlough those who can't work due to looking after children (and can do so on a flexible basis)
Employers have discretion to choose to furlough someone via the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, including parents who can't work due to school closures. Yet as employers are nervous about this, to help, last April Martin tweeted the Chancellor for clarification, and got back an official statement saying it's correct. We re-checked this with HMRC on 30 December 2020, and it said:
"Employees who are unable to work because they have caring responsibilities resulting from coronavirus can be furloughed. For example, employees that need to look after children can be furloughed. It is for the employer to decide whether to offer to furlough an employee."
This is how it works:
- You first need to ask your employer if it is willing to furlough you. It's down to each individual employer to decide whether or not it's happy to furlough you – so your first port of call is to speak to your employer.
- You can be furloughed on a flexible basis, so you can still work as normal some of the time. This means you can work for any amount of time and any shift pattern, only claiming furlough pay for the hours not worked. You will be paid your normal wage for the hours you do work and the hours you don't work will be covered by furlough pay – giving you at least 80% of your normal wage.
For example, Mum Mary could work her normal hours Monday-Thursday and then be furloughed Friday, while Daddy Dave could be furloughed Monday, but work his normal hours Tuesday-Friday.
- There is no minimum furlough period – it could be for as little as one hour. The amount of time you work each week can also vary on a weekly basis. So if you can't afford to be fully furloughed, you might be able to do so for just a fraction of time.
For example, if you work a 40-hour week and your employer agrees, you can work 39 hours and then be furloughed for the remaining hour.
See the furlough section above for the full lowdown.
If furlough is not an option for you, there are other things to consider:
- By law, employees have the right to take time off work to help someone who depends on them in an unexpected event. However, you DON'T have a legal right to be paid for this time, though some employers may offer paid time off in this situation depending on your contract or your workplace's policy.
- There's no official limit on how much time you're allowed to take off. It just must be "reasonable" for the situation.
- Look at other options, including taking annual leave or unpaid parental leave. If you do need to spend a longer period away from work, you may also be able to book the time off as holiday, or take unpaid parental leave. Parental leave is available for employed parents who have been with their company for more than a year, and is usually limited to four weeks' leave per year, per child – though it could be extended at your employer's discretion. It's important to note that it's unpaid though.
- See if flexible working can help. You also have the legal right to ask to work flexibly as long as you've worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks, and it must consider your request and deal with it "in a reasonable manner". This could include asking to change or reduce your hours so you can look after your children.
Other employee rights during the pandemic

While it's not part of the furlough scheme, there are a few other things you need to know about your rights as an employee that are relevant, including annual leave and a tax break that's available if you need to work from home...
Looking for other help? This guide has info about how coronavirus affects employees. We also have...
- Coronavirus self-employed & small limited co help for SEISS grant info.
- Coronavirus universal credit & benefits for benefits updates.
- Coronavirus finance & bills help incl mortgages, debts and bills support.
- Coronavirus life in lockdown for the latest on supermarkets, MOTs etc.
- Coronavirus travel rights for the latest on holidays and refunds.

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