Changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme from today (1st September 2020)

Dear @PAYadvice

We’re writing to remind you about changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)from today and what this means for you or your clients. 

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 or your clients need to do now

• Continue to pay furloughed employees 80% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. Employers will need to fund the difference between this and the CJRS grant themselves.
• The caps are proportional to the hours not worked. For example, if an employee is furloughed for half their usual hours in September, employers 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 or your clients provide all the data we need to process your claims. Payment of employers’ grants may be at risk or delayed if they submit a claim that is incomplete or incorrect, so we want to help them get this right. We will get in touch if we see any employee data missing from previous claims.

Claiming for 100 or more employees: use our template

It’s really important to use the right file type when uploading data. The easiest way for you or your clients to ensure a file is in the right format is to use our template. To find it search ‘download a template if you’re claiming for 100 or more employees through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV‌.UK.

If a file is in the wrong format – for example, an incorrect file type or too many or too few columns – it may be rejected. If an employers’ file is rejected, they’ll receive a message to say it has not been accepted and their claim will not be processed.

Fraudulent claims

We have started to investigate CJRS claims where fraud is suspected. We will be paying particular attention to claims that differ from the PAYE data we hold and where we 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 or your clients are available to book online – go to GOV‌.UK and search ‘help and support if your business is affected by coronavirus’. 

Our 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 our 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.  

Yours faithfully

Jim Harra

Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary – HMRC

PAYadvice.UK updated 2/9/2020