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Advice For Employers & HR Professionals

Extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) announced

After 1 December 2020, employers will not be able to use the extended CJRS to recoup payments of statutory or contractual notice pay.

This particular facet of the CJRS has been deeply unpopular with Unions, who have lobbied for its removal since the Scheme opened in March, criticising the Government for creating a loophole which conflicts with the Scheme’s over-arching aim of retaining staff.

With the loophole closing, the cost of any redundancies from December will have to be met, in full, by the employer and not part-funded by the Government (and UK tax-payers). We expect some employers will look to take advantage of the financial support for notice pay, while it remains available, by rushing through redundancies especially where the notice periods are relatively short.

Other important points:

  • Employers can access the extended CJRS from 1 November 2020, without having done so before and in respect of employees who have not previously been furloughed.
  • There is no limit on the number of employees who can be furloughed at any one time, provided the employee was on the employer’s payroll on 30 October 2020 they are eligible (subject to a couple of exceptions).
  • From December, HMRC will be publishing the names of employers who make claims under the CJRS for that month onwards; this was not a feature of the earlier CJRS. As well as the name of the employer, a ‘reasonable indication’ of the amount claimed will also be made public.

A fuller note will be available soon.

Updated: 18 November 2020

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