October Furlough Changes

From 1st October, the amount employers can claim for furlough drops to 60%, up to a cap of £1875.00 per month, with the employer having to make up 20% of gross pay, so employees still receive 80% of their pay. This will be the final month of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Job Support Scheme

From 1st November, a new Job Support Scheme will be introduced to protect jobs where businesses are facing lower demand over the winter months due to COVID-19. Under the new scheme which will run for 6 months, the government will contribute towards the wages of employees who are working fewer than normal hours due to decreased demand.

Employers will continue to pay the wages for the hours their staff work (at least 33% of usual hours) and for hours not worked, both the employer and the government will pay a third each of the usual wages (capped at £697.92 per month). This means employees will receive at least two thirds of their usual pay. Employers must continue to pay all employers NIC and employer pension contributions.

To be eligible, employees must:

• be registered on your PAYE payroll on or before 23 September 2020. This means a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment in respect of that employee must have been made to HMRC on or before 23 September 2020.
• work at least 33% of their usual hours. The government will consider whether to increase this minimum hours threshold after the first three months of the scheme.

The Job Support Scheme will be open to employers across the UK even if you have not previously applied under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

The Job Support Scheme will start from 1st November and you will be able to claim in December. Grants will be paid on a monthly basis.  

The scheme will operate in addition to the Job Retention Bonus. You and your employees can benefit from both schemes in order to help protect viable jobs. 

Coronavirus has meant many quick changes to Payroll. We are ready, as always

From a payroll point of view we will, of course, support all our clients who want to use the Job Support scheme. This will be, as was the CJRS scheme, another significant change to build into payroll, but rest assured, we will be ready