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Job support schemes extended again

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On 5 November, the UK government announced that the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) will remain open until the end of March 2021, with employees receiving 80% of their current salary for hours not worked up to a monthly maximum of £2,500. For claim periods running to January 2021, the government will pay the 80%, with employers only paying employer NICs and pensions contributions. The government will review the CJRS in January to decide whether to ask employers to contribute more for February and March 2021.

The scheme is available for employees who were on the employer’s payroll on 30 October 2020 (or for employees who were on the payroll on 23 September 2020, were made redundant after that date and are then re-employed).

Neither the employer nor employee needs to have previously claimed/have been claimed for under the scheme in order to make a claim under this extended version (subject to the other eligibility criteria being met). Employers will retain the flexibility to use the scheme for employees for any amount of time and shift pattern, including furloughing them full-time.

HMRC updated its collection of CJRS guidance on 10 November to reflect the revisions, and employers are able to claim under the extended scheme (for the period starting on and after 1 November ) from Wednesday 11 November 2020. The job retention bonus will fall away, but the government has committed to ‘redeploy a job retention incentive at the appropriate time’. As previously announced, the job support scheme is also postponed.

The self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) is also extended. The grant will be increased to 80% of trading profits for the period covering November to January (as before, based on average trading profits and capped at £7,500 for the three-month period). The window for claiming the grant will open on 30 November. The amount of the further grant for the period covering February to April 2021 has not yet been set.

Issue: 1509
Categories: News
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