The Coronavirus Job Retention scheme is set to wind down during October with the final claims having to be submitted during the month of November.
From 1st November for 6 months there are two options for employers – the Job Support Scheme and the Extended Job Support Scheme in addition to the Job Retention Bonus.
The Job Retention Bonus is a £1,000 one-off taxable payment to you (the employer), for each eligible employee that you furloughed and kept continuously employed until 31 January 2021.
You’ll be able to claim the bonus between 15 February 2021 and 31 March 2021. You do not have to pay this money to your employee.
You can claim the bonus if you’re an employer who has furloughed employees and made an eligible claim for them through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Your employee must have been eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant for you to be eligible for the bonus.
You can still claim the bonus if you make a claim for that employee through the job support scheme.
You cannot claim the bonus for any employees that you have not paid using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant because you have repaid all the grant amounts you claimed for them. This applies regardless of the reason why you repaid the grant amounts.
You can claim for employees that:
To meet the minimum income threshold you must pay your employee a total of at least £1,560 (gross) throughout the tax months:
If HMRC are still checking your Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claims, you can still claim the Job Retention Bonus but your payment may be delayed until those checks are completed.
HMRC will not pay the bonus if you made an incorrect Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim and your employee was not eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
If your business can open then the government state they want to support you to bring those people back to work through the job support scheme which will directly support the wages of people who are in work to give businesses the option of keeping employees in a job on shorter hours rather than making them redundant. This support is through the original JSS announced in September as part of the winter economy plan. Although full guidance has not yet been released we do know:
Rishi Sunak announced the extended Job Support Scheme (JSS) for businesses, which are required to close due to local or national restrictions, stating that the approach to protecting jobs needs to evolve as the situation evolves during the crisis. The support for businesses will be in the form of grants to help pay the wages of staff who cannot work due to local restrictions.
The extension of JSS applies to businesses in any region or nation of the UK that are legally required to shut over the winter period. That includes those businesses that are required to provide delivery and collection services only from their premises, or only serve food and drink outdoors from their premises.
The key details of the extended JSS are:
Our Furlough Hub will be regularly updated with new calculators and guidance documents for the Job Retention Bonus, and the Job Support Schemes as soon as further guidance is available from HMRC. Our Managed Payroll Services includes the calculation and payment to employees in respect of all of the above.
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