As we are now in another lockdown and employers will inevitably be placing employees on Furlough Leave and wishing to claim the CJRS grant to support this, we thought we would remind you of a few key points
If you wish to make a claim you must do so by the following deadlines:
| Claim for furlough days in | Claim must be submitted by |
| December 2020 | 14 January 2021 |
| January 2021 | 15 February 2021 |
| February 2021 | 15 March 2021 |
| March 2021 | 14 April 2021 |
| April 2021 | 14 May 2021 |
| To amend a claim for: | You must amend the claim by 11:59pm on: |
| December 2020 | 28 January 2021 |
| January 2021 | 1 March 2021 |
| February 2021 | 29 March 2021 |
| March 2021 | 28 April 2021 |
| April 2021 | 28 May 2021 |
Full details are available on the .gov website here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wages-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme
Who can I claim for?
Employees who were employed and registered on the HMRC RTI submission at some point in the period between 20th March 2020 and 30th October 2020 may be furloughed and a claim for CJRS grant made.
You may, if you wish, re-engage employees whose employment has terminated, whether through redundancy or for another reason. You would be re-employing them, and they would therefore have continuous service – so bear in mind if this would take them over 2 years’ service giving them unfair dismissal rights and the right to a statutory redundancy payment if/when their employment subsequently terminates. It’s a good idea to put an end date to this re-employment e.g. until 30th April 2021 when the CJRS scheme ends or prior to that date. Do ask us for help putting this in writing to the (ex) employee.
CJRS Grant – how much can I claim?
80% of salary up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.
Holidays during furlough leave
If an employee has holiday booked during furlough leave then they would take that holiday as booked unless they requested to cancel it and you agreed; we would suggest that you don’t do this as the holiday will still have to be taken at some point.
You can oblige employees to take holiday during a period of furlough leave (although you shouldn’t furlough specifically to take holidays) by issuing statutory notice of double the amount of notice as holiday to be taken. If you’d like to see our templates please contact us about subscribing to our Advice Line service.
We strongly advise that you do compel employees to take at least some of their holiday during furlough so that you are not faced with a backlog of untaken holiday when the employee(s) return to work. We would suggest that at least ¼ of annual entitlement is taken by 31st March 2021 although you could insist on more.
What do I pay the employee if they are on holiday during furlough?
When on holiday employees are entitled to 100% of their normal salary and you must pay this.
How much can I reclaim under the CJRS if the employee is on holiday during furlough?
You can claim up to 80% of normal salary capped at £2,500 per month
Notice and CJRS Grant
Remember, the scheme changed on 1st November 2020 and you can no longer claim the CJRS grant for periods of notice. Notice is payable at 100% of normal salary and you are responsible for paying the whole amount.
Employees accrue holiday up to the termination date; this is another good reason for not allowing holiday to build up as you will either have pay it in lieu on leaving or get the employee to take it during notice, either way you will be responsible for 100% of the cost and not able to claim anything back under the CJRS.
You can insist that employee take holiday during the notice period if this is stated in their Contract of Employment (our templates have included this provision for some time) or you issue them with statutory notice as outlined above.
Our Support and Advice
Please do talk to us if we can help in any way, we are here to support you.
Guidance and support
We are constantly updating and adding to our Coronavirus Dropbox. Support for getting your business going is available through our Advice Line.
Please note, this briefing is accurate at the time of writing and intended as guidance, it is subject to change as the COVID-19 and Government advice changes; it is not intended to replace advice so please do call us if you have any queries.
