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Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Question for Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

UIN HL4316, tabled on 12 May 2020

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assistance is available to those who received firm job offers including start dates before lockdown was announced on 23 March but whose start dates have subsequently been postponed because of the lockdown.

Answered on

27 May 2020

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is designed to help employers whose operations have been severely affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) to retain their employees and protect the UK economy. If an individual was on their former employer’s payroll as of 28 February 2020, their employer can re-employ them and put them on furlough. This applies even if an employee is not re-employed until after 19 March.

However, the scheme is not an employment right and it is up to the employer to decide who to furlough, and whether to re-employ a member of staff they have made redundant or who has resigned from their employment.

There is a package of support available for those who are not eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, including an increase in the amount of Universal Credit, three-month mortgage holidays and support for renters.

Answered by

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy