Important updates to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

There are some Important updates to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme from the end of this month.

From the 1^st of‌‌ October 2020:

HMRC will pay 60% of the usual wages per month,
for the hours furloughed employees do not work,
up to a cap of £1,875 per

What employers need to do from the 1^st of‌‌ October

Continue to pay furloughed employees:

at least 80% of their usual wages
for the hours they do not work
up to a cap of £2,500 per month.

Employers will need to fund the difference between this and the CJRS grant themselves.

The caps are proportional to the hours not worked.

For example

If an employee is furloughed for half their usual hours in October, employers:

are entitled to claim 60% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work, up to £937.50 (half of £1,875 cap).
must still pay their employees at least 80% of their usual wages for the hours they don’t work.

So for someone only working half their usual hours employers need to pay them up to £1,250 (half of £2,500 cap), funding the remaining portion themselves.

For help with calculations, search ‘Calculate how much you can claim using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV‌.UK.

You will also continue to pay furloughed employees’ National Insurance and pension contributions from your own funds.

Make sure your data is right

It’s important that you provide all the data needed to process your claims. Payment of employers’ grants may be at risk or delayed if they submit a claim that is incomplete or incorrect. HMRC will get in touch if there is any employee data missing from previous claims.

Claiming for 100 or more employees – use the new template

The easiest way for you to provide the data needed is to use the updated template – to find it, search ‘download a template if you’re claiming for 100 or more employees through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV‌.UK.

To help prevent mistakes, the XLS and XLMS versions of the template now highlight any missing information needed to make a claim before you submit it. Where information is missing, fields will be red and once the missing information is filled in, the data fields will turn green. Employers can also now flag if an employee has recently returned from statutory leave, to ensure claims with any new employees are processed correctly.

Claimed too much in error?

It’s important that you continue to check each claim is accurate before submitting it. HMRC is also recommending checking previous claims to avoid any penalties for claiming too much.

If you have claimed too much CJRS grant and have not repaid it, you must notify HMRC and repay the money by the latest of whichever date applies below:

90 days from receiving the CJRS money you are not entitled to
90 days from the point circumstances changed so that you were no longer entitled to keep the CJRS grant
20‌‌^th of October 2020, if on or before 22 July you received CJRS money you’re not entitled to, or if circumstances changed.

If you do not do this, you may have to pay interest and a penalty as well as repaying the excess CJRS grant.

How to let HMRC know if you have claimed too much

You can let them know as part of your next online claim. The system will prompt you to add details if you have received too much. If you have claimed too much and do not plan to submit further claims, you can let them know and find out how to make a repayment online.

Go to ‘Pay Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grants back’ on GOV‌.UK.

Further support

Guidance and live webinars offering you more support on changes to the scheme and how they impact you are available to book online – go to GOV‌.UK and search ‘help and support if your business is affected by coronavirus’.