Furlough Extended to 31 March 2021

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

The Government has announced the CJRS, which was to end on 31 October 2020 and be replaced by the Job Support Scheme (JSS), has been extended to 31 March 2021.

The scheme, also known as the furlough scheme, has been designed to support employers who have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and allow them to access a grant covering 80% of eligible employees’ wage costs up to a cap of £2,500 per worker per month. 

This means that the Government will pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500, and employers will pay employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and pension contributions only for the hours the employee does not work. 

The level of grant available for February and March 2021 has yet to be determined.

As under the current scheme, flexible furloughing will be allowed in addition to full-time furloughing. 

The scheme will be available to all employers with a UK bank account and UK PAYE schemes. Neither the employer nor the employee needs to have previously used the CJRS. 

Key points about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

• To be eligible to be claimed for under this extension, employees must be on an employer’s PAYE payroll by 23:59 30th October 2020. This means a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment for that employee to HMRC must have been made on or before 30th October 2020. 
• Employees can be on any type of contract. Employers will be able to agree any working arrangements with employees. 
• Employers can claim the grant for the hours their employees are not working, calculated by reference to their usual hours worked in a claim period. Such calculations will broadly follow the same methodology as currently under the CJRS. 
• When claiming the CJRS grant for furloughed hours, employers will need to report and claim for a minimum period of 7 consecutive calendar days. 
• Employers will need to report hours worked and the usual hours an employee would be expected to work in a claim period. 
• For worked hours, employees will be paid by their employer subject to their employment contract and employers will be responsible for paying the tax and NICs due on those amounts.  

For clients we prepare payroll for and who have requested that we submit the furlough claim we will do so.

For other clients we will assume you are submitting the claim yourselves.

If you process your own payroll then we will not have HMRC authority to submit the claim and you will need to submit the claim yourself.

Further information on the scheme can be found here.