Revenue eBrief No. 106/20
08 June 2020
Update – Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme
New facility for employees and employers to participate in the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme where an employee returns to work following a period of maternity or other related leave or, where an employee was in receipt of Illness or other benefits paid by the Department of Employment Affairs & Social Protection (DEASP).
Following the announcement by the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform on 29 May 2020, Revenue has implemented a change to the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) to accommodate employees returning to work
- following a period of maternity, adoptive leave or related unpaid leave, or a period of paternity, parental leave or related unpaid leave, or
- having been in receipt of Health and Safety or Parent's Benefit paid by the DEASP for February 2020, or
- having been in receipt of Illness Benefit paid by the DEASP for February 2020
and who may not have been on their employer's payroll on 29 February 2020 or may not have been paid in January or February 2020.
A new process to implement this change for such employees and their employers is now operational.
Employers wishing to provide the subsidy to an employee returning from maternity or adoptive leave since 26 March, or having received certain DEASP benefits, should log on to ROS myEnquiries, click ADD “A New Enquiry” and select the current category “Covid-19: Temporary Wage Subsidy”, Subcategory: “TWSS - Maternity and other Benefits”.
Revenue will manually calculate a net weekly pay for each employee concerned and will create a revised ‘csv file’ for the employer.
For each employee returned to the payroll by the employer, Revenue will apply the scheme retrospectively from 26 March 2020, the date of return to employment or the date the employer was registered for the scheme, whichever is the latest.
Further guidance on the new arrangements is available from Revenue’s website in the FAQ's on Guidance on the Operational Phase of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.
Any queries can be sent via MyEnquiries to the National Employer Helpline.