Further changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) become effective from 1st September.
- From 1st September CJRS will pay 70% of usual wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 per month for the hours furloughed employees do not work.
- You will still need to pay your furloughed employees at least 80% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. You will need to fund the difference between this and the CJRS grant yourself.
- The caps are proportional to the hours not worked. For example, if your employee is furloughed for half their usual hours in September, you are entitled to claim 70% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work up to £1,093.75 (50% of the £2,187.50 cap).
- You will continue to have to pay furloughed employees’ National Insurance (NI) and pension contributions from your own funds.
Further guidance and live webinars offering you more support on changes to the scheme and how they impact you are available to book online – go to GOV.UK and search ‘help and support if your business is affected by coronavirus’.
Making sure your data is right
It’s important that you provide all the data HMRC needs to process your claim. Payment of your grant may be at risk or delayed if you submit a claim that is incomplete or incorrect. You can find everything you’ll need to help make your claim on GOV.UK, including a useful calculator and guidance on the data you need to provide and the format you need to use to ensure your claim is accepted. Search for ‘claim for wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’.
If you’re claiming for 100 or more employees, please download and use the HMRC template as this will help you ensure your data is right – search ‘download a template if you’re claiming for 100 or more employees through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV.UK.
Finding previous CJRS guidance
HMRC has recently updated its CJRS guidance to make it easier for users to find the most relevant, up-to-date information. If you need to check older guidance – for example, information for your claims ending on or before 30 June – you can search ‘check if you can claim for your employees’ wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ or ‘check which employees you can put on furlough to use the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV.UK. A link to previous guidance can be found in boxes at the top of these pages.