10th June 2020
The Government have announced that parents who are currently on statutory maternity or paternity leave and due to return to work in the coming months WILL be eligible for inclusion into the Furlough Scheme, but conditions do apply.
The current Furlough Scheme is due to close to new entrants on 30th June 2020 with any new entrants having to be Furloughed by 10th June to be included into the scheme. This new amendment allows for parents on maternity/paternity leave to be included if when they are due to return to work there is little or no work for them to return to.
One important point to note however is that parents who are returning from maternity/paternity leave can only be included into the Furlough Scheme if the scheme is already active. This means that the employer must have Furloughed other employees before the cut-off date of 30th June 2020 for the returning parents to be Furloughed.
If a Furlough Scheme is not in place by 30th June 2020 then the returning parents will not be able to be Furloughed.