22 Jun 2021

UK: Guidance on missed deadline furlough claims

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has issued the following guidance to employers where they may have missed submitting a furloughing claim (under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme). MSI's London accounting member haysmacintyre provides further details.

HMRC may accept late claims if you have all of the following:
  • A reasonable excuse
  • Taken reasonable care to try and claim on time
  • Claimed without delay as soon as you were able to
HMRC has provided the following examples of where a reasonable excuse may be in point and a late claim will be considered:
  • Your partner or another close relative died shortly before the claim deadline
  • You had an unexpected stay in hospital that prevented you from dealing with your claim
  • You had a serious or life-threatening illness, including COVID-19 related illnesses, which prevented you from making your claim (and no one else could claim for you)
  • A period of self-isolation prevented you from making your claim (and no one else could make the claim for you)
  • Your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online claim
  • Service issues with HMRC online services prevented you from making your claim
  • A fire, flood or theft prevented you them from making your claim
  • Postal delays that you could not have predicted prevented you from making your claim
  • Delays related to a disability you have prevented you from making your claim
  • An HMRC error prevented you from making your claim
Where a claim deadline has been missed and the claimant has a reasonable excuse, then any late claim should be made via the HMRC portal. HMRC has also announced that they expect to recover over £1bn of fraudulent or mistakenly claimed furlough payments over the next two years. Employers should review their claims to ensure they have not made any errors in the amounts claimed. For further guidance, please speak with a member of our employment tax team.

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