If you cannot maintain your workforce because your operations have been affected by coronavirus (COVID-19), you can furlough employees and apply for a grant to cover a portion of their usual monthly wage costs where you record them as being on furlough.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended until 30 April 2021. You can claim 80% of an employee’s usual salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.
You can claim for employees who were employed on 30 October 2020, as long as you have made a PAYE RTI submission to HMRC between the 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee. This may differ where you have made employees redundant, or they stopped working for you on or after 23 September 2020 and you have subsequently re-employed them.
All employers with a UK, Isle of Man or Channel Island bank account and UK PAYE schemes can claim the grant. You do not need to have previously claimed for an employee before the 30 October 2020 to claim.
Employers can furlough employees for any amount of time and any work pattern, while still being able to claim the grant for the hours not worked. Employers must pay for employer National Insurance contributions and pension costs.
Claims for furlough days in January 2021 must be made by 15 February 2021. You can no longer submit claims for claim periods ending on or before 31 October 2020.
Talk to us about helping you claim a CJRS grant – we have been helping our clients for many months and we can estimate claims in advance to help your cash flow planning.
Ask HMRC not to publish your Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) claim details.
You can request that HMRC does not publish details about your CJRS claim, if you can show evidence that it would result in serious risk of violence or intimidation to:
- you or anyone living with you.
- an individual associated with your business or anyone living with them.
Examples of individuals associated with your business include:
- an employee
- a director, officer or employee of that company
- a partner, officer or employee of that partnership
- a member or employee of a limited liability partnership
- a settlor, trustee or beneficiary of a trust
You must make this request yourself; we cannot do it for you.
HMRC will not publish any of your details until a decision has been made and you have been informed.
To submit a request, you will need your:
- employer Government Gateway ID and password.
- employer PAYE reference number.
- business name.
- contact details.
You must provide evidence of why you think there would be a serious risk. Evidence can be:
- written details of why you think publication could lead to the threat of violence or intimidation.
- a police incident number if you’ve already been threatened or attacked.
- photos of a previous threat or attack.
- evidence of possible disruption or targeting.
- any other material which can support your request.
To submit a request see: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ask-hmrc-not-to-publish-your-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-claim-details?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=f686df3f-d351-4e95-ab29-e343bbbc051d&utm_content=daily
Pay Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) grants back.
If you have overclaimed for CJRS then HMRC encourage employers to pay all or some of the grant back or if you do not need the grant and want to make a voluntary repayment you can do so using the link below.
You can either:
- correct it in your next claim (your new claim will be reduced, and you will need to keep a record of the adjustment for 6 years)
- get a payment reference number and pay HMRC back within 30 days (only if you are not making another claim)
You must use the online service to get your payment reference number before you can pay HMRC back. You should only do this if you are not making another claim.
Please talk to us if you have any concerns about past claims and we will help put matters in order.
Alexander Marshall 