How long do I have to bring a claim?

The Government has produced workplace guidance for employers, setting out 2 key messages for employers:

• Continue to make workplaces as safe as possible; and
• Encourage workers to heed any notifications to self-isolate and to support them while they are require to isolate

Government guidance can be accessed here: How it works (an overview) and Workplace guidance for employers.

From 1 July 2020 the furlough scheme has been operating more flexibly.

The key changes from 1 July 2020 were:

• All furloughed employees are subject to the new flexible furlough rules and the new basis for calculating claims
• Furloughed employees can be brought back to work on a part-time basis for any amount of time and can work any work pattern
• Employers can claim for the hours not worked compared the hours the person would normally have worked in that period
• There must be a new written furlough agreement in place to record the agreement with the furloughed employee to return to work part-time
• The new agreement (including a collective agreement) must be made before any period of flexible furlough begins but it may be varied at a later stage if necessary. The agreement must be incorporated into the employee’s contract of employment, either expressly or impliedly
• Employers must keep a record of this agreement until at least 30 June 2025, and they must also keep a record of the hours the furlough employee worked and the hours that they were furloughed
• Employees can be furloughed from 1 July 2020 for any amount of time and more than once
• However, if you re-furloughed an employee after 10 June but before 1 July 2020, they had to be furloughed for an initial period of three consecutive weeks
• Claims for payments under the scheme must not cross calendar months so if you are claiming for the initial three week period of a re-furloughed employee who was furloughed on 12 June for example, you must submit separate claims for the dates in June and July
• Although flexible furlough agreements can last any length of time, you should only submit a claim to HMRC once a week.

Civil Court listing priorities, last updated by HMCTS on 24 April 2020, categorise the Court’s work into the following:

Priority 1 – work that must be done: this includes any applications in cases listed for trial in the next 3 months, any applications where there is a substantial hearing listed in the next month, all multi-track hearings where parties agree that it is urgent (subject to triage).

Priority 2 – work that could be done: Infant and Protected Party approvals, Applications for interim payments in multi-track / personal injury / clinical negligence cases, Applications to set aside Judgment in default, Preliminary Assessment of costs.

The full guidance can be found at:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/881019/Civil_court_listing_priorities_24_April_2020.pdf

A break or pause in learning can be initiated where the interruption to learning due to Covid-19 is greater than four weeks. This must be reported as a formal break in learning. In such circumstance the funding to the training provider will be suspended for the duration of the break. Previously, the rules only allowed an apprentice to initiate this break in learning but this has been expanded to give employers and training providers the right to initiate this. Training providers should continue with their monthly IRL submissions to the ESFA. During breaks in apprenticeships it is not necessary for the apprentice to comply with the minimum of 20% on the job training requirement but this will resume when the break ends.

As above, people must not leave their home unless they have a ‘reasonable excuse’ and travelling should be limited to their local area. Employees may leave their home and local area to travel for work if they cannot reasonably work from home. You should attempt to reduce the number of journeys they make.