The Government has issued further guidance on the new version of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme “CJRS” (Furloughed Workers).

Here is our summary of these updates:

  1. The first point to note is that any employee not furloughed for three weeks prior to 1st July will not be eligible for the new version of CJRS. The qualifying three weeks can be from any time between 1st March to 30th June
  2. We are used to claims being made up to 14 days in advance of the period end. Under the new CJRS, the first claim for July can be made on 1st July. This means you cannot make an advance claim in June for a July pay period. If you run a weekly or perhaps fortnightly pay period that falls in the first week of July, the business will need to cover the wage liability until the grant is received given the six-day turnaround for payment
  3. Employees not previously furloughed cannot be placed on furlough leave and a claim made under the new CJRS. The cut-off date was 10th June. The exception to this rule is employees coming back from parental leave, subject to them being on the company payroll at 19th March 2020
  4. Claims from July are limited to a maximum number of employees per claim equal to the maximum employees submitted on a previous claim. For example, if in April there were three employees, May two and June four, the maximum number of employees eligible for a claim from 1st July is four. This provision has come out of nowhere and no fuss has been made about it, but is probably the most important
  5. The final day for making a June CJRS claim is 31st July 2020
  6. The qualifying gross salary amount stays the same as we have previously been calculating. For most employees this will be based on their February 2020 payslip, average of 12 months’ pay or same period in 2019
  7. Claims from 1st July will need to be made in the same monthly period. The claims should match with the payroll submission made to HMRC. For example, you can’t claim from 1st July to 15th August. One claim up to 31st July will need to be made and then 1st August to 31st August

From 1st July the same rules still apply in terms of employees not being able to carry out any work or promote the business whilst on furlough leave.

If you have any questions, please do get in touch with the team. We are all here and happy to help.

Stay safe and well

The Clear Vision Team