The government has announced a new national lockdown starting this Thursday that will, initially, last until December 1st. This will require all non-essential businesses to close and people will once again be required to stay at home unless necessary to venture outside.
This also means that the current furlough scheme will continue on until March 31st 2021. It is unknown as to what becomes of the furlough's replacement, the job support scheme.
The extended furlough scheme will not require the employer to contribute 20 percent to government's 60 percent in order to pay the employee 80 percent of their wage.
Now the government will pay the entire 80 percent of the wage and the employer will only have to pay the 'employer NICs' and 'auto-enrolled pension'.
You can use our furlough calculator, which will now allow you to enter dates up to March 31st 2021, to see how employee pay is affected and contributions employers need to make.
The current SEISS scheme from November to January 2021 had been updated and to provide grants of up to 55 percent of previous profit - based on 80 percent for November and 40 percent for December and January - but this too has now been updated to 80 percent for the entire three months.