Did you top up furlough pay? The highest level of support offered by the Government through the CJRS sat at 80% of an employee’s usual wages, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. This fluctuated from month to month and will reduce to 60% during the final months of the scheme’s operation. Employers, however, have still been required to ensure staff receive the equivalent of 80% of their standard salary, regardless of the level of Government support they can claim, so have had to fund a proportion of the employee’s pay themselves. Since the introduction of the scheme back in March 2020, however, employers have had the option of topping the pay amount up beyond that 80%, so, for example, they could claim for 80% of an employee’s wages through the CJRS but still pay them 100% of their pay, as long as they paid for that additional 20% themselves.
The CIPP wanted to establish how widespread this practice was.
Results show that the majority (60%) of respondents topped employee pay up to the normal amount.
The additional comments highlight the fact that lots of businesses did not fall strictly into one category or the other, as they may have topped up pay for several months and then opted to pay at the Government-funded rate only for another period of time. Qualitative data also suggests that employers topped up the pay for some staff, but not others.
Again, respondents from bureau environments confirmed that how pay was administered throughout the pandemic depended completely on their clients.
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C I PP POL I CY AND RESEARCH TEAM PAYSL I P STAT I ST ICS COMPARI SON 2008 -2021
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