HMRC says that the online portal being built to process the payments of furloughed staff through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will open on Monday, April 20.

This will mean that HMRC will be ready to make payments by Thursday, April 30.

The system will apparently be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and callers can queue to speak to an adviser.

Payments will normally be processed within 4-6 working days of the employer’s application, and can be made up to 14 days in advance of the employer’s payroll date.

Reimbursement can be applied for employees furloughed from the start of March 2020 until end of May 2020.

 

But there is some doubt as to whether the launch date will be met.

 

A few days ago HMRC wrote to tax agents saying:

“We are ready to launch on 20 April. This will be made public shortly, at which point we will be contacting businesses to advise them what they need to do. At this point we would welcome you also contacting your clients and offering yourselves as vital support during this process, either directly, if authorised, or indirectly if you are a file only agent.

We are expecting phone demand to be beyond our capacity to offer a normal service. Therefore, the service is designed to be self-serve with guidance in place. Again, your support in helping us achieve this is called on.”

 

EYE would very much like to give you more details but yesterday the HMRC Press Office could only tell us that Chief Executive, Jim Harra, discussed the issue when he appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday and at a recent Treasury Select Committee appearance. No further detail was forthcoming.

 

Just after we put this story into the schedule yesterday evening, we received two communications.

 

The first came in the form of a press relase from the tax advisory firm, Blick Rothenburg:

It was headed: ‘Thousands of Businesses at greater risk as Government indicate that Furlough scheme could be delayed until the end of April’

And said that it now looks as if the online portal, which employers will use to make claims, won’t be available until the end of the month,

Heather Self, a tax partner at the firm said: “The Government updated their guidance this afternoon and it looks as if the portal will not be ready by April 20th as promised.

“Employers are desperate to get the money into their bank accounts. It now looks as if there will be a further delay until at least the first week of May.”

She added: “HMRC are working hard to get things up and running, but cashflow is critical and employers need certainty.  Let’s hope the system is ready to go – and robust – next week and is not delayed further.”

Nimesh Shah, a partner said: “Businesses desperately need certainty from the Government on the timings when the scheme will be active, as they are precariously managing their cashflow on a daily basis.

“The 10-day delay will come as a blow for a number of businesses who were counting on the money to arrive sooner.

“A system like this is incredibly difficult to implement and launch and to do it within a matter of weeks was always going to be challenging for HMRC.

“With the delayed launch, it’s hoped that system is accessible and is able to cope with the inevitably high demand.”

 

An hour later came an email from HMRC Business Support to EYE, (which is of course an employer, though not furloughing staff),  which confidently told us the portal will indeed be live on 20th April:

 

Dear customer [sic],

We wrote to you last week to help you prepare to make a claim through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. We are now writing to tell you how and when to access the system with some more information about what you will need to have ready before the system goes live.

We are also updating you on an important change to the scheme relating to employee eligibility:

• you can claim for employees that were employed as of 19 March 2020 and were on your PAYE payroll on or before that date; this means that you will have made an RTI submission notifying us of payment of that employee on or before 19 March 2020
• employees that were employed as of 28 February 2020 and on payroll (i.e. notified to us on an RTI submission on or before 28 February) and were made redundant or stopped working for you after that, and prior to 19 March 2020, can also qualify for the scheme if you re-employ them and put them on furlough.

More information on this can be found on GOV.UK.

How to claim

As you prepare to make a claim, please note:

• the online claim service will be launched on GOV.UK on 20‌‌ April 2020 – please do not try to access it before this date as it won’t be available
• the only way to make a claim is online – the service should be simple to use and any support you need available on GOV.UK; this will include help with calculating the amount you can claim
• you can make the claim yourself even if you usually use an agent
• claims will be paid within 6 working days; you should not contact us unless it is absolutely necessary – any queries should be directed to your agent, representative or our webchat service
• we cannot answer any queries from employees – they will need to raise these with you, as their employer, directly.

Information you will need before you make a claim

In addition to the information in our previous email, you will need to have the following before 20‌‌ April 2020:

• a Government Gateway (GG) ID and password – if you don’t already have a GG account, you can apply for one online, or by going to GOV.UK and searching for ‘HMRC services: sign in or register’
• be enrolled for PAYE online – if you aren’t registered yet, you can do so now, or by going to GOV.UK and searching for ‘PAYE Online for employers’
• the following information for each furloughed employee you will be claiming for:

1. Name.
2. National Insurance number.
3. Claim period and claim amount.
4. PAYE/employee number (optional).

• if you have fewer than 100 furloughed staff – you will need to input information directly into the system for each employee
• if you have 100 or more furloughed staff – you will need to upload a file with information for each employee; we will accept the following file types: .xls .xlsx .csv .ods.

If you want an agent to act for you

Please note:

• agents authorised to act for you on PAYE matters can make the claim on your behalf using their ID and password
• you will need to tell your agent which UK bank account you want the grant to be paid into, in order to ensure funds are paid as quickly as possible to you.

You should retain all records and calculations in respect of your claims.

Guidance on GOV.UK is being regularly updated so please review it frequently.

 We continue to wish you all the best at this challenging time.

Yours sincerely

Jim Harra

First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive – HMRC

Seems to us that attempting to access the portal either before or on 20th April would be a little difficult since despite the HMRC letter saying it would tell us how to gain access there is no sign of a URL link to the portal.

So will it open on 20th April? Your guess is as good as ours. Watch this space.