The Government has announced a further expansion of the JSS, to increase the reach of its winter support schemes to ensure livelihoods and jobs across the UK continue to be protected in the difficult months to come. 

Under this latest expansion, employers will be expected to pay 5% of the cost of unworked hours under the Job Support Scheme (JSS) instead of the 33% originally communicated.

When originally announced, the JSS required employers to pay one third of their employees’ wages for hours not worked. Employees were required to be working 33% of their normal hours. But today’s announcement reduces the employer’s contribution to those unworked hours to 5% and cuts the minimum hours requirement to 20%. This means that staff working just one day per week will be eligible.

The JSS starts to operate from 1 November and covers all Nations of the UK. For every hour not worked, the employee will be paid up to two-thirds of their usual salary.

The Government will provide up to 61.67% of wages for hours not worked, up to £1541.75 per month (more than doubling the maximum payment of £697.92 under the previous rules). The cap is set above median earnings for employees in August at a reference salary of £3,125 per month.

Employers using the scheme will also be able to claim the Job Retention Bonus (JRB) for each employee that meets the eligibility criteria of the JRB. This is worth £1,000 per employee. Taking JSS-Open and JRB together, an employer could receive over 95% of the total wage costs of their employees if they are retained until February.

For more information see here