Furlough scheme extended as response to new national lockdown

Following the government’s announcement over the weekend, from November 5^th, there will be another national lockdown across England. Along with this announcement, there has also been further support provided for businesses. What does this mean for you and your business?

The relevant local covid alert level measures will apply to your area until November 5^th. From then the national lockdown restrictions will replace the local restrictions. These restrictions will be in place until December 2^nd, after which the plan is aimed to continue with a regional approach. You can find the new national restrictions on the government website. Details and exemptions of the restrictions are outlined.

The Furlough Scheme (job retention scheme) was due to end on October 31^st. However, this has now been extended until the end of March 2021 in order to give businesses security through winter. The furlough scheme reintroduced will be one that was used in August. The Job Support Scheme which was due to replace furlough has now been delayed to begin after lockdown. Employers have the option of entering into another flexible furlough agreement with their employees or they can issue their employees with a side letter confirming the extension of their previous flexible furlough agreement albeit on the new terms.

Details of the furlough (CJRS)

• Both full and part time staff will be able to use the furlough scheme –  neither the employer nor the employee needs to have previously used the CJRS
• The scheme is available in respect of employees who were on the employer’s PAYE payroll by 23:59 on 30 October 2020 (with a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment for that employee to HMRC having been made on or before 30 October).
• Employers will pay the wages of the hours their employees work and can claim 80% furlough on hours not worked
• There will be a cap of £2500 per person per month that can be claimed.
• If they wish to do so, employers are able to top up employees wages at their expense
• Employers are expected to pay all employer NI and pension contributions for worked and unworked hours
• When claiming the CJRS grant for furloughed hours, employers will need to report and claim for a minimum period of 7 consecutive calendar days
• Employers will be paid upfront to cover wage costs. Although there will be a short period where the claims portal will need to be updated and employers will be paid in arrears for that period

 Redundancies

HMRC state if employees were on your payroll on 23rd September 2020 and were made redundant or stopped working for you afterwards, they can also qualify for the scheme if you re-employ them. You could consider taking this up as an employer to save jobs within your company.

Business Grants

The grants that were announced for businesses forced to close in tier 3 has now been extended to all area across England. These grants are paid fortnightly (for every two weeks that the business is closed). The amount for businesses are as follows:

• £667 if rateable value is £15,000 or under
• £1000 if rateable value is over £15,000 but under £51,000
• £1500 if rateable value is £51,000 or over

In addition, £1.1 billion has been given to Local Authorities to distribute as one-off payments to support businesses that are not forced to close but will be affected. Local authorities will decide on who receives this and the amount they receive. Typically the amount received will be based on rateable values and employee numbers.

Are you eligible?

For further details on eligibility and the financial support available please see the update posted on the government website.

If any further details or changes from the government are released, we will provide updates.

If you have any concerns or would like to discuss things further, please get in contact with the HPC team today.

T: 0844 800 5932

E: contact@highperformanceconsultancy.com

Twitter: @HPC_HRServices