Covid-19
furlough and disallowed any claims.
The rules were considered restrictive enough to prevent and tackle fraud but not so restrictive that the smallest of businesses would fold. COPYRIGHT © 2021 THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF PAYROLL PROFESSIONALS This scheme remained in force up to 31st July 2020, having been extended from the original cessation date of 31st May 2020, and then extended further to 31st October 2020. From 1st July 2020 the scheme was changed to allow employers and employees to agree a flexible return to work and as such the employer was permitted to claim for non-working time. Previously the employee was not permitted to perform any work of economic value to the employer. Claims for furlough periods starting on 1st August 2020 continued to maintain the 80% of normal wage support but employers could no longer claim the associated employers National Insurance charge, nor the employers pension contribution under automatic enrolment. From 1st September 2020 the support level of CJRS reduced to 70% of the normal wage of the employees non-working hours, capped at £2,187.50, reducing to 60% from the 1st October 2020, capped at £1,875. The employer contribution in each of these has to be at least 10% and 20% respectively. The whole CJRS was intended to be replaced by a completely new scheme, Job Support Scheme (JSS), from 1st November 2020. This was to be a fairly complex scheme but was in fact postponed when the UK was put into a further period of severe restrictions as Covid-19 infections began to rise dramatically again. As a consequence the furlough scheme, CJRS was retained and extended to December 2020. CJRS also returned to its original 80% support level but with employers still funding the employers National Insurance and pension (AE) costs. On 17th November 2020 we heard that the scheme was to be extended again, this time till 31st March 2021. At the same time a further scheme, the Job Retention Bonus (JRB) had been withdrawn. JRB was an attempt to encourage employers to retain staff beyond the operation of both CJRS and JSS. A bonus of £1,000 per employee who could have been laid off but was kept on and returned to work as to be paid out in February 2021. In November 2020 the Treasury postponed the JRB alongside the JSS; and then on 17th November 2020 it was withdrawn altogether. No printing, copying or reproduction permitted. One key change which occurred from January 2021 was that HMRC informed all claimants that information about successful claims for CJRS would be published publically but also put on the personal tax account of those employees for whom, a claim had bene made by their employer. This was a further measure to discourage CJRS fraud and to expose more quickly any which did take place. Some large employers voluntarily elected to fund the furlough scheme and to forgo their entitlement to a CJRS grant. The scheme is due to close on 30 September 2021 now with the final three months being reimbursed at 70% of wages, July 2021 and finally to 60% in both August and September 2021, however, at the time of publication we are not aware of any further measures to be introduced
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