Overclaimed furlough? Government explains how to pay it back

The government has today issued guidance to help employers repay HMRC if they've overclaimed through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. 

If you're continuing to claim you should correct the over payment in your next claim. But, if you're not planning on making any other claims, you should make a payment to HMRC. You'll need your 14 or 15 digit payment reference number and can pay by Faster Payments, CHAPS or Bacs to HMRC's account which is set out in the guidance.

This appears to be the first stage of the government's plans to recover over payments from employers. Those that take advantage of it are likely to avoid fines and other more serious penalties that are being planned where employers have deliberately overclaimed for staff who haven't been furloughed at all, or have been working for part of the their normal hours.

Details of the enforcement scheme likely to come into force soon are available in our previous blog.

Our Coronavirus updates

We're working hard to keep you up to date with legal developments around Coronavirus. We've set up a portal which includes lots of helpful articles and advice to help you.

If you have a query, that we haven't answered, please contact us.