After the confusion caused by the third treasury statement, the Government have clarified the position on whether furlough can be claimed to cover notice payments for employees facing redundancy. The answer appears to be a categoric “yes” with the Gov.UK guidance including, under the heading “If you’ve made your employees redundant”, the following statement:
“Where you must make redundancies, you should do so in accordance with the normal rules. This includes giving a notice period and consulting staff before a final decision is reached. You can continue to claim for a furloughed employee who is serving a statutory or contractual notice period, however grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments.”
This, hopefully, will ensure that such claims will not be queried in future HMRC audits.
