CJRS extended until March 2021

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was due to come to an end on 31 October 2020, being replaced from 1 November 2020 with a new scheme – the Job Support Scheme. However, the second national lockdown in England changed all that. The CJRS has been reprieved and will now continue to run until 31 March 2021, while the Job Support Scheme has been put on hold.

Eligibility under the extended scheme

You will be able to claim a grant for eligible employees who are fully or flexibly furloughed under the extended scheme if you had a UK PAYE scheme on 30 October 2020 and have a UK bank account. You do not need to have made a claim previously to be eligible to claim for periods starting on or after 1 November 2020

You can make a claim in respect of an employee, if the employee was on your payroll at 11.59pm on 30 October 2020 and you had made an RTI submission in respect of that employee between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020. Employees who are made redundant or who left on or after 23 September 2020 can also benefit from a grant under the scheme if you re-employ them, as long as you had made an RTI submission in respect of them between 20 March 2020 and 23 September 2020.

You do not need to have previously furloughed an employee and made a claim under the scheme on their behalf to claim a grant for them under the extended scheme.

Amount of the claim

The good news is that for the first phase of the extended scheme, which runs from 1 November 2020 to 31 January 2021, you can once again claim the full 80% of the employee’s usual wages for their furloughed hours (subject to the cap, set at £2,500 a month) – there is now no obligation for you to top up the amount claimed, as was the case for October and September.

As previously, the employee will receive 80% of their usual pay for their furlough hours (up to the cap). You must pass on the full amount of grant to the employee. Where the employee is flexibly furloughed, you must continue to pay them at their usual rate for the hours that they work, in addition to payment of the CJRS grant.

The amount of support that will be provided under the scheme for February and March 2021 has yet to be set; the Government are to review this in January 2021.

Calculating the claim

The amount that you can claim in respect of an employee’s furloughed hours depends on the usual hours that they work and their usual rate of pay. This can be complex. Guidance on working out what you can claim is available on the Gov.uk website.

Tax and National Insurance

You must deduct PAYE tax and employee’s National Insurance from grant payments that you make to your employees. You must also calculate and pay employer’s National Insurance on grant payments. Unfortunately, you cannot claim this back from the Government and must meet this cost yourself.

Making the claim

As previously, you will need to make your claim online via the claim portal. Claims must be for a minimum period of seven consecutive days and must start and finish in the same calendar month. If you use an authorised agent to file your RTI submissions, they can make the claim on your behalf.

You should be aware that tighter deadlines apply for making claims under the extended scheme – for pay periods starting on or after 1 November 2020, claims must be made by the 14^th of the following month. Where this date falls on a weekend, the deadline is the following Monday. The following table shows the claim deadlines for making claims under the extended scheme.

The money should reach your account within six working days of the day on which you made your claim, so remember to allow sufficient time so that you have the money available to pay your employees on time.

Claims for July to October 2020 had to be made by 30 November 2020.

Job Retention Bonus

The extension of the CJRS means that you will now not be able to claim a Job Retention Bonus in February 2021.

Can we help?

Speak to us if you are unsure whether you are able to make a claim under the extended scheme or if you need help in working out what you can claim.