In reply to Claire:

It might be useful to look at HMRC simplified expenses scheme for self employed as a guide. If you work from home self employed, you can claim a portion of home running expenses using complicated rules, or the simplified scheme which allows you to claim £26 per month as an expense if you are working >101 hours a month. (for 51 to 101 its £18, under 50 its £10).

Now, I know your employees are not self employed by definition but it might be useful to have an arbitrary amount "we will pay you what HMRC would let you claim if you were self employed". That gets you out of difficult sums and arguments like "ah my boiler is very old so my gas bill is higher .... I live in my own so wouldn't normally heat the house ... the ch pump broke so I need £150 to get it fixed ....I need to put LED bulbs in everywhere .... my parrot needs extra food because it can't sleep while I'm working"

It's no different from using AMAP rates for mileage - simple, externally referenced, reasonable.

I have a question please regarding the recent changes to furlough rules. We are a specialty chemical producer of key ingredients in cleaning compounds — such as anti-bacterial soaps and hand sanitizers so we are lucky to be really busy at present. I have just had someone who's doctor has informed us that he should be shielded as he has severe asthma. Can I furlough him as I know you can with shielded employees however it says if he would've otherwise have been made redundant. I have been confused by this last part?
Can someone help please? Thanks

Hi, Can anyone help with this query? We have all staff working from home and have asked people to still take annual leave if it has been booked during this period. We have one member of staff who is 'at risk' and has been advised by GP to self isolate for 12 weeks. He had a 2 week holiday booked abroad which is being moved by the holiday company in any event so understandably he wants to cancel his two weeks holiday. We are trying to be fair to everybody and the business (as fair as you can be during this time) so don't want to make exceptions but my question is, as his GP has said he cannot go out for 12 weeks would this make him an exception and should we allow cancellation of holidays as if it was sick leave, even though he is still well and working? Thanks anyone

In reply to Caroline Tomlinson:

Caroline Tomlinson common sense to me says this is an exception

In reply to Caroline Tomlinson:

from acas www.acas.org.uk/.../using-holiday
Using holiday for a temporary workplace closure
Employers have the right to tell employees and workers when to take holiday if they need to.
Requiring staff to take or cancel holiday
Employers have the right to tell employees and workers when to take holiday.

An employer could, for example, shut for a week and tell everyone to use their holiday entitlement.

If the employer decides to do this, they must tell staff at least twice as many days before as the amount of days they need people to take.

For example, if they want to close for 5 days, they should tell everyone at least 10 days before.

Employers can also cancel pre-booked paid holiday. If they decide to do this, they must give staff at least the same number of days’ notice as the original holiday request.

For example, if an employee has booked 5 days holiday, the employer must tell them at least 5 days before the holiday starts that it’s cancelled.

This could affect holiday staff have already booked or planned. So employers should:

explain clearly why they need to do this
try and resolve anyone's worries about how it will affect their holiday entitlement or plans

In reply to Viv :

We are advising against it
It is meant to be about job protection so I think HMRC will be taking a very close look at a busy Company

In reply to Claire:

We have directed colleagues to the gov.uk website where they can claim tax relief although it does say if the homeworking is voluntary, it's not claimable. There is also a view amongst some I've spoken to that colleagues will be saving on ordinary commuting costs so in some cases, may offset any additional homeworking costs.

In reply to Keith:

Thank you, that was my first thought but then I kept going back and forth so came to look for re-assurance. Much appreciated

In reply to Lucy:

Hi Lucy - I have similar questions, it seems that there is not yet clear guidance on this point with nothing stopping an EE from being furloughed and on annual leave at the same time. Annual leave requires EE's to be paid a week's pay for a week's leave. Annual leave may therefore need to be paid at the usual rate of a week's pay rather than the 80% but again not clear as to whether the business would be able to claim for 80% of this cost and only subsidise the 20% for the duration of the leave. As guidance is not clear, the business could end up with full liability for holiday days/weeks if the Government issues further guidance that the furlough grant may not be used to be allocated to leave during furlough. This is tricky and subject to further interpretation. In the case of potential for redundancy it seems as though either way the leave would need to be paid out at normal wage rate and if this is the case, may be a consideration to allow leave to be taken - but this would clearly need further guidance from an employment law specialist in my view. Do share if you have any solutions on this.

In reply to Ancilla:

www.acas.org.uk/.../using-holiday

The relevant extracts are:

If an employee or worker is temporarily sent home because there’s no work and the employer intends to claim for their wages under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ('furloughed'), they can still request and take their holiday in the usual way. This includes bank holidays.

Employees and workers must get their usual pay in full, for any holidays they take….


Bank holidays are usually part of the legal minimum 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday. Employees and workers must get their usual pay for bank holidays.

Employees and workers may still be required to use a day’s paid holiday for bank holidays, including when they’re furloughed. If bank holidays are given on top of the 5.6 week’s paid holiday, employees and workers should check their contract or talk to their employer about taking this holiday.

If employees and workers usually work on bank holidays but are currently furloughed, they should check with their employer to see if they have to take holiday on that day or if they can take the time off at a later date.

If employees and workers cannot take bank holidays off due to coronavirus, they should use the holiday at a later date in their leave year.

If this is not possible, bank holidays can be included in the 4 weeks’ paid holiday that can be carried over. This holiday can be taken at any time over a 2-year period.

In reply to Viv :

Hi Viv - I would also be interested in getting answers to this. We supply medical equipment and are extremely busy, with plenty of work for everyone to do. We have a few employees on 12 weeks shielding that we are currently paying contractual sick pay/SSP, however can we furlough instead?

In reply to Miranda King:

Hi Miranda you can now furlough shielding employees yes.

In reply to Peter Stanway:

Hi Peter my lawyer has said he would qualify?

In reply to Beth:

Hi Beth please look at the AskTheCIPD twitter stream today which was all about managing remotely, some great ideas on there. Also we have guidance here: https://bit.ly/39WR3iW

We are a manufacturing company, still fully operational. One of our employees has just received an 'extremely vulnerable' letter from the NHS (dated 3rd April), and has produced a copy for us - all fine, however he has stated that he does not wish to follow the advice to shield and would like to continue to come into work! His role will not allow him to WFH so as a business we would be offering him full pay during his time at home - any thoughts? For his own protection can we insist? He's a great employee, we've made every adjustment we can in all areas of the business to allow social distancing and increased sanitising etc. His motivation seems to be that he thinks he will be incredibly bored at home.