Furlough Payments – Latest – May 2021

Message from HMRC about the Furlough Scheme.

April CJRS claims

Thank you if you have submitted your April furlough claims already. If you haven’t submitted them yet, you must do so by the deadline of Friday‌‌ ‌14‌‌ ‌May.

You can currently claim 80% of your furloughed employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,500 per month, to the end of June.

You can claim before, during or after you process your payroll. If you can, it’s best to make a claim once you’re sure of the exact number of hours your employees will work so you don’t have to amend your claim later.

What you need to do now

1. Check if you’re eligible and work out how much you can claim using our CJRS calculator and examples, by searching ‘Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV‌‌.UK.
2. Submit any claims for April no later than Friday‌‌ ‌14‌‌ ‌May.
3. Keep records that support the amount of CJRS grants you claim, in case HMRC needs to check them.

You must pay the associated employee tax and National Insurance contributions to HMRC. If you don’t do that, you’ll need to repay the whole of the CJRS grant, as this is a condition of applying for the grant.

CJRS eligibility for claim periods from May

If you have employees who have previously been ineligible for the CJRS, as they were not on your payroll on 30 October 2020, they may be eligible for periods from 1 May 2021 onwards.

For claim periods from May, you can now claim for eligible employees who were on your PAYE payroll on 2 March 2021. This means you must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying HMRC of earnings for that employee.

You and your employees do not need to have benefitted from the scheme before to make a claim, as long as you meet the eligibility criteria. For more information on eligibility, search ‘check if you can claim for your employees’ wages’ on GOV‌‌.UK.

Frequently asked questions about the CJRS

You can find everything you need to know about the CJRS on GOV‌‌.UK by searching ‘Job Retention Scheme’, and here are some answers to the most common questions that employers have been asking us recently:

How much can I claim through the CJRS?

The UK Government will continue to pay 80% of your furloughed employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,500 per month, to the end of June.

In July, CJRS grants will cover 70% of employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,187.50. In August and September, this will then reduce to 60% of employees’ usual wages up to a cap of £1,875.

You will need to pay the difference from Ju‌‌ly, so that you continue to pay your furloughed employees at least 80% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work during this time, up to a cap of £2,500 per month.

You must also pay the associated employee tax and National Insurance contributions to HMRC. If you don’t do that, you’ll need to repay the whole of the CJRS grant to us.

Can I claim a CJRS grant to pay for holiday leave?

If you have furloughed employees because of the impact of the pandemic on your business, you can claim under the CJRS for periods of paid leave they take while on furlough, including for bank holidays. You should not place employees on furlough just because they are going to be on leave.

If your employee is furloughed for only some of their hours, you can count time taken as holiday as furloughed hours, rather than working hours. This means you can currently claim for 80% of your employee’s usual wages when they’re on leave.

In line with the Working Time Regulations, if a furloughed employee takes holiday you should make sure you are calculating the correct holiday pay, and not simply continuing to pay the 80% you receive through the CJRS. You may need to top up your employees’ pay to 100% of their normal hourly rate or salary. For more information search ‘check if you can claim for your employees’ wages’ and ‘holiday entitlement and pay during coronavirus’ on GOV‌‌.UK.

Discover more about the scheme here.