As the UK Government continue to respond to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, legislation and guidelines continue to change. More recently, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced an extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).
This is not the first change to the scheme, which has now been extended and altered several times to support organisations and their employees that have been affected by lockdown restrictions. The hospitality industry has been hit particularly hard by these restrictions, and the aim of the extension is to allow pubs, restaurants, hotels and other businesses to manage financially as they begin to open.
If lockdown eases as planned, hospitality businesses could begin to open as normal from the 21st of June 2021.
The CJRS now ends 30th September 2021
Legislation has now officially been published by The Treasury via an update to Sections 71 and 76 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 which means the scheme will officially come to an end on 30th September 2021.
Changes to claimable amounts
However, the extension to the scheme is not the only change. Whilst the scheme will now operate for a longer period, supporting businesses as lockdown measures continue to ease, there are changes to the claimable amounts.
Up to 30th June 2021 employers will continue to be able to claim 80% of furloughed employee’s qualifying wages up to a maximum of £2,500 per month, providing that eligibility criteria has been met. The employer can choose to top up this amount, but this is not mandatory, and employers National Insurance Contributions and statutory pension contributions must be paid by the employer on the furloughed amount.
From the 1st July 2021 this will change, and the level of claimable grant will drop to 70% for furloughed employees, and employers will be required to top this up by a further 10% to bring the amount received by the employee up to 80%.
The claimable amount will then drop to 60% from the 1st August 2021 with employers required to give a 20% top up, and remain at 60% until the scheme ends on the 30th September 2021.
The changes in summary
In summary, the scheme will continue to operate until 30th September 2021 and the employer must continue to pay 80% of an employee’s furloughed hours up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. The amount that can be claimed by an employer will reduce on a sliding scale from the 1st July until the end of the scheme.
Employers will be required to cover employers National Insurance Contributions, employers statutory pension contributions and top up the furloughed hours by 10% in July, then 20% in August and September.
Dataplan continue to take the stress out of CJRS for our clients
At Dataplan we continue to take the stress out of CJRS for our clients. We will continue to submit claims to HMRC on behalf of our clients as we have done since the start of the Coronavirus crisis, and at no additional cost to them.
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