Please find below information on the changes to the Job Retention Scheme from 1^st November. 

The Job Retention Scheme will remain open until 31 March 2021. For claim periods running to January 2021, employees will receive 80% of their usual salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. The £2,500 cap is proportional to the hours not worked. The government will review the policy in January to decide whether economic circumstances are improving enough to ask employers to contribute more.

Employers do not need to have used the JRS previously and employees do not need to have been furloughed under the JRS previously. Employers can claim for employees who were employed and on their PAYE payroll on 30 October 2020. Employers will have flexibility to use the scheme for employees for any amount of time or shift pattern, furloughing employees on either a full-time or part-time basis.

We will continue to contact you each month to request your hours worked.

Employees not claimed for previously under CJRS

If we have previously made a claim on your behalf under the JRS, the calculations for basis pay and usual hours will remain the same going forward. If this is appliable to you, please disregard the information below and move straight to the section regarding claim deadlines. 

If we have not previously made a claim for you under the JRS we are required by HMRC to use the alternative calculations for basis pay and usual hours as follows:

Basis pay: calculating 80% of wages

If an employee was not previously eligible for JRS, 80% of wages must be calculated for employees:

• whose pay varies - 80% of the average payable between (these dates are inclusive) the start date of their employment or 6 April 2020 (whichever is later) and the day before their JRS extension furlough periods begins.
• 80% of wages is capped at the maximum wage amount of £2500 proportional to hours not worked. 

Usual hours for an employee who works variable hours

Your usual hours will be calculated as the average hours worked between (these dates are inclusive):

• the start date of the 2020 to 2021 tax year, (for example, 6 April 2020) and the day before their CJRS extension furlough periods begins
• Please note we can only use hours / pay processed through the UK payroll for the above calculations. Therefore, figures from the Irish payroll cannot be taken into account. 

Claim deadlines.

In a change to the original scheme, claims relating to each subsequent month should be submitted by day 14 of the following month. 

Job Support Scheme & Job Retention Bonus.

The launch of the Job Support Scheme has been postponed because of national developments related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Job Retention Bonus (JRB) will not be paid in February 2021 and a retention incentive will be deployed at the appropriate time. The purpose of the JRB was to encourage employers to keep people in work until the end of January. However, as the CJRS is now being extended to 31 March 2021, the policy intent of the JRB no longer applies.

Due to the extension of the furlough scheme, next month we will be making a  £1 deduction from your salary (shown on your payslip as Bank charge HMRC) to cover additional banking costs incurred whilst paying your monthly tax and NI contributions to HMRC. We do not usually incur this charge as funds are paid from your company account to HMRC via Frontierpay. As funds have been paid into the UK account used for the JRS we cannot apply the usual procedure as this would incur further exchange rate conversions. The £1 charge will cover all payments made to HMRC for November – January.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.