The JSS will run from 1 November 2020 for six months until April 2021 and the government’s factsheet on this new scheme can be found here.
Worked examples
- Eligibility
– The JSS will be available for those businesses facing lower demand over the coming months as a result of ongoing restrictions due to Covid-19. It will help protect viable jobs that are retained on a reduced work hours basis instead of the employees being made redundant at the end of CJRS. As before with the CJRS, employers will need a UK bank account and UK PAYE scheme to claim the grant.
– The scheme is not tied to the previous CJRS so neither the employer nor the employee needs to have previously used the furlough scheme, although only employees who were on an employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 23 September 2020, with a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying that payment for that employee to HMRC was made on or before 23 September 2020, will qualify.
– Employees must work at least 33% of their usual hours to qualify. This threshold will be reviewed after three months. - The grant
– Employees must work at least 33% of their usual hours and must be paid their normal contracted wages for the hours worked.
– For the hours not worked, the government will pay a third of the usual hourly wage for that employee, capped at £697.92 a month, as a grant. As with the CJRS, the grant money must only be used to pay for employees’ wages. This will mean that employees earning below a certain threshold will continue to earn a minimum of 77% of their normal wages.
– The grant will not cover Class 1 employer NICs or pension contributions; these will remain payable by the employer. This is likely to be based on the amounts actually paid to the employees.
The grants will be paid in arrears from December on a monthly basis following payment of wages to the employees and the relevant submissions having been reported to HMRC via an RTI return. The grants can only be used as reimbursement for wage costs actually incurred.
– Additionally, employers will also be able to claim the Job Retention Bonus if they meet the eligibility criteria.