Following plans announced at the end of September by Rishi Sunak, the employee ‘Job Support Scheme’ (JSS) replaces the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme (CJRS) from 1st November 2020, and is currently due to run for a minimum of 6 months.
The scheme will extend further support to employers in the hope of them retaining employees rather than laying them off as the country looks to recover from the economic impact of COVID 19. While less "generous" than the original "CJRS", there is at least some clarity with the JSS in that employers know how long the scheme is expected to run for and can forward plan accordingly.
Qualifying criteria are listed below along with a brief summary of how the calculations will be made.
To qualify for the support employers should be aware of the following: -
Employees must work at least 33% of their 'usual hours'.
Employees should be paid as normal for the hours worked. For every hour not worked the employer and the government meet an extra one-third of the employees' usual pay, the government contribution to be capped at £697.92 per month.
Employees must be on an employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 23 September 2020.
Employers using the Job Support Scheme will also be able to claim the Job Retention Bonus (subject to eligibility criteria).
All employers with UK bank accounts and Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) schemes, even if they have not used the CJRS.
Employees must be on an employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 23 September 2020 and RTI Submissions notifying employee payments to HMRC must have been made on or before 23 September 2020.
Employees must not already be on notice of redundancy when the employer starts using the scheme for them.
In calculating the JSS : -
(source Ross Martin Tax Resources for accountants)
1. The employee must work for at least 33% of their usual hours and the employer pays the employee their usual contracted wages for the actual hours worked. This means that this amount paid by the employer for this part will be not less than for a minimum of 33% of usual hours.
2. For each hour not worked by the employee, the government and employer will each contribute to pay further third of the usual hourly wage for that employee. The government contribution will be capped at £697.92 a month.
Where the Government contribution has not been capped employees will earn a minimum of 77% of their normal wages.
The grant will not cover Class 1 employer NICs or auto-enrolment pension contributions which will remain payable by the employer.
'Usual wages' will follow a similar calculation methodology as for the CJRS.
Employees who have previously been furloughed under the CJRS will have their underlying usual pay and/or hours used to calculate usual wages and not the amount they were paid whilst on furlough.
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