Covid 19 - What you need to know - Job Retention Scheme

The Government have now posted online information about how to Claim for wage costs through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is a temporary scheme open to all UK employers for at least three months starting from 1 March 2020.  Employers can claim for 80% of furloughed employees’ usual monthly wage costs, up to £2,500 a month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that wage.

The scheme is open to all UK employers that had created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on 28 February 2020.

For employees whose pay varies, the advice states the level of reimbursement should be claimed as follows:

• If the employee has been employed (or engaged by an employment business) for a full twelve months prior to the claim, you can claim for the higher of either:
• the same month’s earning from the previous year
• average monthly earnings from the 2019-20 tax year
• If the employee has been employed for less than a year, you can claim for an average of their monthly earnings since they started work.
• If the employee only started in February 2020, use a pro-rata for their earnings so far to claim.