Breaking news – CJRS extended until the end of April 2021 and Budget Day will be 3 March 2021
CJRS
Breaking news – CJRS extended until the end of April 2021 and Budget Day will be 3 March 2021
Thu 17 Dec 2020
On 17 December, the Chancellor announced that the CJRS arrangement will be extended until 30 April 2021 to allow employers to have greater certainty with planning for the year ahead, particularly given the likelihood that Covid-19 will continue to persist throughout 2021.
What does this mean?
The announcement means that:
- employers can continue to keep employees that were employed (on a payroll submission) on or before 30 October on full furlough or flexible furlough until 30 April 2021, provided that they have a valid furlough agreement in place; and
- employers can continue to claim financial support from the Government, capped at the lower of 80% of qualifying pay or £2,500 per month.
There are no other changes to the conditions announced in respect of the extended CJRS arrangement in place from 1 November 2020.
Further announcements expected in the New Year
In the announcement, it was again highlighted that the Chancellor will review the financial support provided to employer in January 2021. Therefore, we could see a similar approach to what happened between August – October 2020 whereby the employer support was gradually reduced to 60% (maximum of £1,875 per month).
By announcing this extension early, the Government feels that this gives businesses certainty well ahead of the 45 day redundancy notice period, with the 3 March Budget date setting out the next phase of support more than 45 days before the new end date of the scheme (30 April).
This also means that the Job Support Scheme and CJRS Bonus are very much dead in the water.
We recommend employers review their CJRS claims made to date – we are helping many organisations with reviews, disclosures and ensuring they have robust controls and governance in place to demonstrate compliance historically and in the future.
Next steps
As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue to share updates and will be happy to discuss any queries or areas you want to explore further.
It is really important to plan ahead, particularly with Brexit and a Budget to plan for as well. We are therefore helping employers carry out organisational reviews, help with R&D claims, introduce cost savings initiatives across pay and reward as well as consider more attractive and cost-efficient reward strategies (including salary sacrifice and sustainable propositions).
Please do get in touch either this side of the new year or early in 2021.
For more information, please contact ian.goodwin@mazars.co.uk, sharon.gilkes@mazars.co.uk or nabeel.thakur@mazars.co.uk
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