New guidance on Furloughing for University staff

New guidance relevant to the HE Sector came out late last week relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The new guidance explicitly confirms that universities can access the scheme and depending on the circumstances, may be able to charge both grant funded and non-grant funded staff. Where staff are funded through central funds which are likely to be from mixed sources, then universities may be able to furlough as long as they’ve checked the other schemes first, still meet the criteria and don’t furlough a proportion that is greater than could reasonably be attributed to non-public sources of funds.

“Where research work has been paused (for example, where grant holders have requested a no-cost extension to UK Research & Innovation grants) and therefore providers are not able to receive payments towards staff costs for a period, resulting in a loss of income due to ceased or reduced delivery of research programmes, providers should consider their eligibility and apply for the wide range of financial support that HM Treasury has already announced for businesses, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in line with the above conditions.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care#higher-education