Claiming Furlough Grants

17th April 2020

If you have, or plan to, put employees on Furlough and receive a grant from HMRC of up to £2,500 or 80% of salary related costs,  the claims mechanism for Furlough grants under the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme goes live on Monday 20th April.

The government’s initial announcement implied that the claim mechanism would be a simple online form.  This may still be the case.  However, the form can only be accessed through the ‘PAYE for Employers’ area of the HMRC online portal for businesses.

Even if you have not furloughed employees to date, or aren’t currently planning to do so, we would advise that you register for PAYE Online so that you can make a grant claim as soon as your situation changes.

Steps to enrol for PAYE Online

  1. Does your business have an online account with HMRC? Check that you can access the account, and then check that you can log in to PAYE Online.  The online account needs to be the business’s own account, not an account which has been set up by your accountant or payroll provider.
  2. If you do not have an account, you need to set one up. The process for registration is straightforward at the first stage, and can be found here https://www.gov.uk/paye-online/enrol. You should follow the link on the HMRC portal to ‘Enrol for PAYE Online – You don’t have an account’. Do not register as a new employer.
  3. Ten days after enrolling for PAYE Online you will receive, via post, the HMRC password you need to activate your PAYE Online account.  This will be sent to your registered office address.

Already have an Online account?

If you already have an account, follow the link to ‘Enrol for PAYE online – You already have an account’. If you have forgotten your password or Government Gateway user ID, you will need to follow the links to request this.

Once you are in your account you must select the option to enrol for ‘PAYE for Employers’ in ‘Services you can add’.

I have a payroll provider.  Do I still need to register for PAYE Online?

Yes, you should still enrol for PAYE Online.

Some payroll service providers operate a “file only” service.  ‘File only’ payroll providers cannot submit furlough data to HMRC so if you do not have a PAYE Online account, you will not be able to make a furlough grant claim.