DWP COVID-19 Update 2 June

The recent updates have been provided to us by the DWP

Extension and Self-Employment Scheme and Furlough Next Steps

News story for the announcement on Friday 29 May
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-extends-self-employment-support-scheme-and-confirms-furlough-next-steps

Both the Self-employment Income Support Scheme and Job Retention Scheme guidance have been updated to reflect the announcement :-

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme

Surplus Earnings and New Regulations

We have received a couple of queries from partner organisations about the following regulations:-

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/522/made

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/522/regulation/3/made?view=plain#f00005

The DWP Response to Social Security Advisory Committee on the following gov.uk page has some information about these regulations –

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-surplus-earnings?utm_source=04bfe86f-70b2-4ee8-86bb-90b6fbda6163&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

Statutory Sick Pay Paid to employees due to coronavirus

The following guidance for employers was updated on 28 May to include “You can now claim for employees who are self-isolating because they’ve been notified by the NHS or public health bodies that they’ve come into contact with someone with coronavirus” –

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-back-statutory-sick-pay-paid-to-employees-due-to-coronavirus-covid-19?utm_source=e78fa457-1f82-42bd-aa90-25eb45fd7edd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

Coronavirus eligibility now includes:-

Your employees qualify for SSP if they meet the criteria and cannot work if any of the following apply:

• started self-isolating on or after 13 March 2020 because someone they live with has coronavirus
• have been shielding since 16 April 2020
• started self-isolating on or after 28 May 2020 because they were notified by the NHS or public health authorities that they’ve come into contact with someone with coronavirus

More detail is available on Gov.uk.

COVID-19 – SSAC letter to the Secretary of State

Sharing this information as partners and stakeholders have been asking about these topics -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-letter-to-secretary-of-state-from-ssac/covid-19-ssac-letter-to-the-secretary-of-state