With a second lockdown being announced by the Prime Minister over the weekend, many businesses now face four weeks of enforced closure and staff that might need to be re-furloughed. In line with this, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been extended at 80%, with the Chancellor announcing today (Thursday 5th November) that this will continue to be available until March 2021, with a review in January. Whilst this is welcome news for many business owners – and employees – it is important to know the facts and understand the detail. Key points in particular to highlight are that members of staff who have not been furloughed before can now be placed on furlough and for employers, even if they haven’t used the furlough scheme before, they can use it now. HMRC have provided a useful round-up, as below and of course, if there’s anything additional that we can support with, please don’t hesitate to contact the NucleusHR team via Toni on 07960 418494 or email toni@nucleushr.com Latest changes that may impact you… The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which was due to end on 31 October, will now be extended, with the UK government paying 80% of wages for the hours furloughed employees do not work, up to a cap of £2,500 for periods from 1 November. You will need to pay all employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and pension contributions. You can choose to top up your furloughed employees’ wages beyond the 80% paid by the UK government for hours not worked, but you are not required to do so. There will be no gap in support between the previously announced end date of CJRS and this extension. For more information, go to GOV.UK and search ‘furlough scheme extended’. How will it work? You will have flexibility to ask your employees to work on a part-time basis and furlough them for the rest of their usual working hours or furlough them full-time. You will have to cover their wages for any hours they work as well as all employer National Insurance and employer pension contributions. You will be able to claim either shortly before, during or after running your payroll. There will be a short period initially when the online claims service will be closed while we update the system, and you will be able to claim in arrears for that period. Further details will be provided in the next few days. How to check if your employees are eligible… You can claim for employees who were on your PAYE payroll on 30 October 2020. You must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee. If employees were on your payroll on 23 September 2020 (i.e. notified to HMRC on an RTI submission on or before 23 September) and were made redundant or stopped working for you afterwards, they can also qualify for the scheme if you re-employ them. Neither you nor your employee needs to have previously used the CJRS. Further details on eligibility will be provided in the next few days. What you need to do now…
Check if your employees are eligible for the scheme, based on the information above.
Agree working hours with your employees, so they know if they are furloughed fully or part-time.
Keep the records that support the amount of CJRS grant you claim, in case HMRC need to check it. You can view, print or download copies of your previously submitted claims by logging onto your CJRS service on GOV.UK.
Job Support Scheme… The new Job Support Scheme, which was due to start on Sunday 1 November, has now been postponed.
As with everything in 2020, the only constant is change. If you need any assistance with catching up, keeping up or simply confirming your understanding, please do email toni@nucleushr.com or call 07960 418494, we look forward to supporting you.