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Update – Job Retention Scheme

At Liquid Friday, we are fully committed to supporting our agencies and contractors during the Covid-19 crisis.

We absolutely understand that contractors will be really concerned about their financial situation and what will happen if a client lays them off because of coronavirus shutdown.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – Liquid Friday Contractors

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is optional for employers, but we are pleased to let you know that we do intend supporting it, if the government framework permits.

What this means

Where eligible, if contractors employed by Liquid Friday are laid off by your client due to Covid-19 we will maintain their employment as a furloughed employee and pay them a proportion of their current pay.

This will be funded by the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, at no cost to your business.

Latest guidance

Below is a summary of the latest information from HMRC on how the scheme will work:

The scheme is only available to those employees who were employed on the 28th February 2020 (even if they were not paid in that period). This means anyone who has joined Liquid Friday after that date is not eligible and must claim Universal Credit or ESA.

The scheme is only for employees who are “Furloughed” this means that they are not working at all, for a minimum of three weeks.

Businesses will pay up to 80% of an employee’s regular earnings up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. The wages paid will be based on the average wages of the period they have worked.

How will it work?

We are working intensely on the detail of how the scheme may be implemented so that we can start to relieve at least some of the fears our contractors are facing at the moment.

We anticipate a basic process as follows:

  • Identify beneficiaries of the Job Retention Scheme
  • Seek the employee’s consent (they do not have to be classified as a furloughed employee if they do not want to)
  • Legally classify employees as furloughed
  • Issue payments, these are likely to be paid monthly.

Bouncing back

It is in all of our interests to protect the flexible workforce as best we can during this period, in order for our supply chains to “bounce back” as quickly as possible once things start to return to normal.

We will continue to provide further updates as we receive clearer guidance from HMRC.

In the meantime, we’re pleased to report that our technology, processes and infrastructure are proving to be robust, and it’s very much business as usual for the Liquid Friday team whilst working at home, so please get in touch if you need to.