Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) changes and deadlines from 1st July 2020
The Government have now issued the detailed guidance on the successor CJRS scheme from 1st July. A lot we knew already, but some of the detail is well worth noting below:
- You will not be able to claim CJRS payments after 30th June for any employee who has not already been on furlough on or before 10th June 2020.
- All furlough periods that start before 1st July must be for the minimum 3 consecutive weeks e.g. a previously furloughed employee who starts a new furlough period on 22nd June would have to continue for 3 consecutive weeks ending on or after 12th July before being flexibly furloughed.
- Flexible furloughing of employees starts from 1st July onwards and with it you can decide the hours and shift patterns your employees work to suit the needs of your business – you’ll pay your employees’ wages for the time they’re in work and can apply for a job retention scheme grant to cover any of their usual hours they are still furloughed for. You can still keep employees on full furlough if you need to also.
- If you flexibly furlough employees, you’ll need to agree this with them (or reach collective agreements) and keep a new written agreement for the new furlough arrangement, including:
- Ensuring the agreement is consistent with employment, equality and discrimination laws
- Keeping a written record of the agreement for six years
- Keeping records of how many hours your employees work and the number of hours they are furloughed (i.e. not working).
- The cut off for claiming for periods ending on or before 30th June, is 31st July.
- Claim periods starting on or after 1st July must:
- start and end within the same calendar month, and
- must last at least 7 days
- You can only claim for a period of fewer than 7 days if:
- the period you are claiming for includes either the first or last day of the calendar month, and
- you have already claimed for the period ending immediately before it.
- Wait until you are sure of the exact number of hours worked during the claim period before claiming.
To calculate the number of furloughed hours:
- Start with your employee’s usual hours.
- Subtract the number of hours actually worked in the claim period – even if this is different to what you agreed.
- Work out the employee’s usual hours and record this along with the actual hours worked plus furloughed hours for each claim period.
- Work out the usual hours for employees who work variable hours, if either:
- They are not contracted to a fixed number of hours, or
- Their pay depends on the number of hours they work
- Start with the contracted hours at end of the last pay period on or before 19th March 2020 i.e. 40 hours.
- Divide by the total number of calendar days in the repeating working pattern i.e. 7 days.
- Multiply by the number of calendar days in the pay period (or partial pay period) you are claiming for i.e. 31 days.
- Round up to the next whole number if the outcome isn’t a whole number.
- Where pay varies by the amount of time worked, the number of hours worked will be shown on the employees’ pay-slips (legislation introduced by BEIS in April 2019 (section 8 Employment Rights Act 1996).
Usual hours for employees working variable hours are calculated by:
- Starting with the hours worked (including paid leave) in the tax year 2019/20 before the employee furloughed, or at the end of the tax year if earlier.
- Divide by the total number of calendar days employed by you in the tax year 2019/20 until the day before furloughed, or at the end of tax year if earlier.
- Multiply by the number of calendar days in the pay period (or partial pay period) you are claiming for.
- Round up to next whole number if the outcome isn’t a whole number.
Download a copy of this latest update below or if you have any queries, or would like to discuss your requirements for the next step, please contact:
Nigel Morris
Employment Tax Director
M: 07718 340634
E: nigel.morris@mhllp.co.uk
Richard Maitland
Employment Tax Partner
T: 07711 373584
E: richard.maitland@mhllp.co.uk