Changes to the COVID Job Retention Scheme

From 1‌‌ September HMRC will now pay 70% of usual wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 per month for the hours furloughed employees do not work.

What you need to do now

• Continue to pay your furloughed employees at least 80% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. You will need to fund the difference between this and the CJRS grant yourself.
• The caps are proportional to the hours not worked. For example, if your employee is furloughed for half their usual hours in September, you are entitled to claim 70% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work up to £1,093.75 (50% of the £2,187.50 cap).
• Continue to pay furloughed employees’ National Insurance and pension contributions from your own funds.

Make sure your data is right

It’s important that you provide all the data HMRC need to process your claim. Payment of your grant may be at risk or delayed if you submit a claim that is incomplete or incorrect, so HMRC want to help you get this right. HMRC will get in touch if they see any employee data missing from your previous claims.

Fraudulent claims

HMRC have started to investigate CJRS claims where fraud is suspected. They will be paying particular attention to claims that differ from the PAYE data they hold and where they have received reports of fraud. Employees are encouraged to report their employer if they have reason to believe that they are abusing the scheme. They can do this anonymously if they prefer. For more information go to GOV‌.UK and search 'report fraud to HMRC'.

More information

Guidance and live webinars offering you more support on changes to the scheme and how they impact you are available to book online – go to GOV‌.UK and search 'help and support if your business is affected by coronavirus'.

Phone lines and webchat are still very busy, so the quickest way to find the support you may need is on GOV‌.UK. This will leave  phone lines and webchat service open for those who need them most.

Protect yourself from scams  

Stay vigilant about scams, which may mimic government messages as a way of appearing authentic and unthreatening. Search 'scams' on GOV‌.UK for information on how to recognise genuine HMRC contact. You can also forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599. 

I hope this information helps you and your business. We’ll continue to keep you updated on scheme developments over the coming weeks. 

If you have any questions or we can help you with furlough or any COVID-19 business support please get in touch. Email the team hello@thebusinesshut.co.uk or call 01858 289 189. Head to our Annual Accounts page to find out more about how our team can help your business.

Thanks for stopping by,

Charlotte & The Business Hut Team

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