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CJRS furlough scheme extended and JSS postponed

02/11/2020

At a glance

As England enters a second national lockdown on 5 November 2020, HM Treasury has announced an extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) to enable employers to place employees on furlough from 1 November 2020.

The Job Support Scheme (JSS), which was due to replace the CJRS from 1 November 2020 (see our article here), has been postponed. It will launch when the CJRS extension ends on 30 April 2021. The Job Retention Bonus has also been postponed and will be redeployed at the appropriate time. Our employment team provides a reminder and summary of the key points of the CJRS extension, below.

Key features of the CJRS

  • The government will pay up to 80% of the usual monthly wage costs of employees who are not required to work (‘furloughed’) or only required to work part of their normal hours (‘flexible furlough’). This is capped at £2,500 per month for each employee.
  • Employers will be responsible for paying the employee for hours worked in the normal way, together with employer National Insurance contributions and pension contributions for the hours that the employee does not work. Employers can choose to top up employee wages to full pay, if they wish.
  • The support mirrors the grant available under the CJRS in August 2020, which is higher than that which would be available under the JSS (for open businesses) and JSS extension (for businesses that were forced to close).
  • The CJRS is available for all employees that were on the employer’s PAYE payroll before midnight on 30 October 2020. There is no requirement for employer or employee to have previously used the CJRS.
  • The grant has been extended by the Chancellor and will remain open until 30 April 2021. The government grant level will remain at 80% of the wages of furloughed or flexibly furloughed employees for the duration of the scheme.

The government have produced a factsheet to summarise the economic support available.

If you have any queries about the CJRS extension, please get in touch with our employment team.

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