Key Dates For The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)
Reminder of key dates for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and actions you or your clients might need to take.
Key dates
• You or your clients should submit CJRS claims for periods ending on or before 30 June 2020 by 31 July 2020. This is the last date to make those claims. Employers need to have made a claim at any point on or before 31 July to be able to make a claim for future months.
• From 1 August 2020 the scheme will no longer fund employers’ National Insurance (NI) and pensions contributions for furloughed employees. Employers will have to make these payments from their own resources.
• From 1 September 2020 employers will have to start contributing to the wages of furloughed employees. Grants will be for 70% of usual wages in September and 60% in October, but furloughed employees will continue to be entitled to receive at least 80% of their usual wages. Employers will have to make up the difference from their own resources.
Live webinars offering more support on changes to the scheme and how they impact you and your clients are available, including a new agent-only webinar, ‘Talking Points – Extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and flexible furloughing’. To book online, go to GOV.UK and search ‘help and support if your business is affected by coronavirus’.
Please check GOV.UK and join one of our webinars if you need further help. This will leave our phone lines open for those who need them most.
Make sure your data is right
It’s important that you or your clients provide the data we need to process claims. Payment of grants may be at risk or delayed if a claim is incomplete or incorrect.
If claiming for 100 or more employees, please use our standard template to submit employees’ details. It is important that you submit the correct data (including National Insurance numbers) in the correct format.
You can find this template by searching ‘Job Retention Scheme template download’ on GOV.UK.
More information about the Job Retention Bonus
We wrote to you recently about the introduction of the Job Retention Bonus – a one-off payment of £1,000 to employers who have claimed under CJRS for each furloughed employee who remains continuously employed until at least 31 January 2021.
More information about this scheme will be available on 31 July.
Incorrect claims
CJRS grants are to cover the costs of furloughed employees’ wages (and related payroll taxes, National Insurance and pension contributions until 31 July). We may withhold or recover grants if they are claimed based on dishonest or inaccurate information.
We’re contacting a number of employers at the moment to check that they have claimed the correct amount.
If you or your clients have made an incorrect claim that meant you claimed too much, you can let us know as part of their next online claim without needing to call us. If employers have made an error and do not plan to submit further claims, or have claimed less than they were entitled to, you or your clients can contact us by searching ‘Contact HMRC’ on GOV.UK.
Protect yourself from scams
Stay vigilant about scams which may mimic government messages as a way of appearing authentic and unthreatening. Search ‘scams’ on GOV.UK for information on how to recognise genuine HMRC contact. You can also forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599.