Following recent announcements of enhanced ‘rules’ due to the continued rise of Covid-19 cases, the Government has announced plans to help employers from 1 November 2020 following the end of the Furlough Scheme at the end of October.  The new Job Support Scheme will run for six months. The full details will be published soon but below is the information that is known so far.

• All eligible employers with a UK bank account and UK PAYE schemes can claim the grant, regardless of whether or not they have previously used the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
• SMEs will automatically be eligible, however, large businesses will have to meet a financial assessment test and will only be eligible if their turnover is lower now than before the pandemic.
• For employees to be eligible they must be on their employer’s PAYE payroll (and HMRC must have been informed to this effect) on or before 23 September 2020.
• For the first three months of the scheme (November, December 2020 and January 2021) the employee must work and be paid as normal by the employer for at least 33% of their usual hours. This minimum hours’ threshold may be increased after the first three months.
• For every hour not worked by the employee, both the Government and employer will pay a third of the usual hourly wage for that employee; note that the contribution from the Government is capped at £697.92 per month. For the employee this means that for time worked (at least 33% of their usual hours) they will receive their normal contracted pay.  For time not worked the employee will be paid up to two-thirds of their normal pay.
• An employee cannot be made redundant (or given notice of redundancy) whilst an employer is claiming a grant for that employee under the Scheme.
• Employers can claim for reimbursement in respect of the Government’s contribution in arrears from December 2020. The grant will not cover Class 1 employer NICs or pension contributions but these contributions remain payable at all times by the employer.

If you need any further clarification please contact Ray Howard who will be happy to help.