The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which has seen the Government provide grants covering a proportion of the wages of UK employees since March 2020, comes to an end on 30th September 2021.
This month is the last month you can claim under the scheme. The Government will pay 60% of your employees’ usual wages for hours not worked, up to a cap of £1,875. You’ll need to continue to pay the difference and contribute 20% from your own funds, so that you pay your furloughed employees at least 80% of their usual wages in total for the hours they do not work, up to a cap of £2,500 a month.
You can still choose to top up your employees’ wages above the 80% level or cap for each month if you wish, at your own expense.
What you need to do now
- Work out how much you can claim for September, and the contribution you’ll need to make to reach 80% of usual wages, by using the CJRS calculator and examples
- Submit any claims for September, no later than Thursday 14 October
- Keep records supporting grants you claim, in case HMRC need to check them
- Make sure you continue paying CJRS related employee tax and National Insurance contributions to HMRC, and contact HMRC if you’re struggling to pay
- Prepare for the scheme closing on 30 September
Preparing for the scheme closing
For any remaining employees you have furloughed, you’ll need to do one of the following when the scheme closes:
- bring your employees back to work on their agreed terms and conditions
- terminate their employment (normal redundancy rules and protections apply to furloughed employees)
- agree with employees any changes to terms and conditions of employment (rules for contractual changes apply to furloughed employees)
Note when making decisions about how and when to end furlough arrangements, equality and discrimination laws apply in the usual way.
You cannot claim CJRS grants for any days an employee is serving a contractual or statutory notice period, including notice of retirement, resignation or redundancy.
If you need further support or advice, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01249 712074 or email theteam@cvag.co.uk.