The Government released the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to run from 1 March 2020. All UK employers will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis and all UK businesses are eligible.

You will need to:

• Designate affected employees as ‘furloughed workers’ and notify your employees of this change. Your employees should not undertake any work whilst furloughed. This will allow you to claim a grant of up to 80% of their wages, up to a cap of £2,500 a month per employee. You could choose to fund the difference between this payment and their salary, but you do not have to. Your employee will remain employed while furloughed.
• The information will need to be submitted to HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and their earnings.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) extension means:

• Part time furloughing available from 1 July 2020 – businesses already using the scheme will have the ability to bring furloughed employees back to work part time
• The government will continue to pay 80% of the wages for any of their normal hours they are not working, up until the end of August 2020.
• Employers decide the hours and shift patterns and will be responsible for paying their wages in full for the hours they work.
• Employer Contributions – From August the government grant will be slowly tapered
• in June and July the grant will continue to cover 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500, as well as ER NI & ER pension contributions for the hours an employee doesn’t work
• In August the grant will continue to cover 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 but employers will pay ER NI and ER pension contributions
• In September the grant will cover 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 for the hours the employee does not work
• In October the grant will cover 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875.00 for the hours the employee does not work
• The scheme will close to new entrants from 30 June. From this point on employers will only be able to furlough employees that they have furloughed for a full three-week period prior to 30 June
• This means that the final date by which an employer can furlough an employee for the first time will be 10 June for the current three-week furlough period to be completed by 30 June. Employers will have until 31 July to make any claims in respect of the period to 30 June

Job Retention Bonus

A one off payment of £1,000 will be available to employers that have used the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). To be eligible, employees will need to:

• Remain in continuous employment until 31 January 2020
• Earn at least £520 per month on average for November, December and January
• Have been furloughed at any point and legitimately claimed for

Employers will be able to claim the bonus from February 2021.

Source: HMRC