Job Retention Scheme (JRS) FAQs

The JRS was a temporary scheme which was open from 1 March 2020 until 30 September 2021 and which was designed to support employers affected by COVID 19. Final claims for September 2021 must be submitted on or before 14 October 2021. Any amendments must be made on or before 28 October 2021.

Any UK employer, irrespective of size or sector can apply for eligible employees. An employer must have a UK, Isle of Man or Channel Island bank account and have a PAYE payroll scheme.

Where a company is in administration, the administrator will be able to access the JRS if there is a reasonable likelihood of retaining the workers.

Where an employer receives public funding for staff costs, or to provide services necessary to the response to COVID-19, the employer is not expected to apply for funding under the JRS.

Furloughed status is not a concept that is recognised in existing employment legislation. Current Government Guidance states that an employee is “on furlough” if they remain on the payroll but are not carrying out work for the employer because of COVID 19.

The Scheme covers:

• Full time employees
• Part time employees
• Employees on agency contracts
• Company directors that are employees and salaried members of limited liability partnerships
• Contractors in scope of the off payroll (IR35) working rules engaged with a public sector or medium or large private sector organisation
• Employees on flexible or zero hour contracts (including “limb b workers”)
• For claim periods starting on or after 1 May 2021, you can claim for employees who were employed on 2 March 2021, as long as you made a PAYE RTI submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021. You do not need to have previously claimed for the employee to claim for periods on or after 1 May 2021.
• Employees who are clinically extremely vulnerable (at the highest risk of severe illness from coronavirus) and are unable to work from home following public health guidance or ill (but short term illness should not be claimed under the Scheme)
• Employees who have caring responsibilities (including childcare and vulnerable adults)

Employees on fixed term contracts can be furloughed. Their contracts can be renewed or extended before their natural conclusion during the furlough period without breaking the terms of the scheme. There is no minimum period which must be left to run on a fixed term contract to enable it to be renewed or extended.

If the employee’s fixed term contract has not already expired, it can be extended or renewed.

For periods starting on or after 1 May 2021, you can put the employee on furlough as long as they were employed by you on 2 March 2021, as long as you have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021.

HMRC guidance states that to be eligible for the grant employers must confirm in writing (which can be by email) to their employee confirming that they have been furloughed. If this is done in a way that is consistent with employment law, that consent is valid for the purposes of claiming the Scheme. There needs to be a written record, but the employee does not have to provide a written response. The guidance also states that collective agreement reached between the employer and the trade union is also acceptable for the purposes of a claim. A record of this communication must be kept for five years until 30 June 2025.

In the absence of a contractual right to lay off, it would be advisable to obtain consent from employees. The easiest way to do this is by email. To impose furlough status without consent is likely a breach of contract, particularly if the employee’s wage is being reduced as a result.

No, it is a decision for the employer. However, if an employer were to refuse to put an eligible employee on furlough and instead made them redundant arguably this would be an unfair dismissal as there was a clear alternative. However, these arguments are yet to be tested in the Tribunal. Also as employers now need to contribute to cover the costs these arguments may now be harder for an employee to make.

If you flexibly furlough employees, you’ll need to agree this with the employee (or reach collective agreement with a trade union) and keep a new written agreement that confirms the new furlough arrangement. You’ll need to:

• make sure that the agreement is consistent with employment, equality and discrimination laws (please see the “how do you furlough an employee” question above for more information on this.
• keep a written record of the agreement for five years.
• keep records of how many hours your employees work and the number of hours they are furloughed (i.e. not working).

You do not need to place all your employees on furlough and you can continue to fully furlough employees if you wish. Employees cannot undertake any work for you during time that you record as them being on furlough.

There is currently no limit to how many employees can be furloughed.

From 1 July 2021 the government will pay 70% of wages up to a maximum cap of £2,187.50 for the hours the employee is on furlough. From 1 August 2021 the government will pay 60% of wages up to a maximum cap of £1,875 for the hours the employee is on furlough.

Employers must must top up employees’ wages to make sure they receive 80% of their wages (up to £2,500) for the hours they are on furlough. The caps are proportional to the hours not worked. Employers also still need to pay employer National Insurance contributions and employer pension contributions. Discretionary fees, tips, commission and bonuses are excluded as are additional employer pension contributions above the minimum automatic enrolment amount. However, guaranteed contractual commission and fees can be covered. Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay can be claimed up to the limits noted above.

The table below explains the government contribution and the figures are based on the employee being furloughed full time.

Previous guidance stated that only non-discretionary payments for overtime could be included in a claim under the Scheme. This had created some confusion for employers so HMRC has elaborated to say that if your employee has worked enough overtime (in the tax year 2019 to 2020) to have a significant effect on the amount you need to claim, you should calculate the applicable percentage of their usual wages in the same way as you would for employees who work variable hours (i.e. you can take the higher of what they earned in the corresponding part of the lookback period or by taking an average figure).

Examples of situations where overtime could have a significant effect on the claim amount include where the employee worked overtime:

• in the last pay period ending on or before 19 March 2020
• in the corresponding part of the lookback period to the period you are claiming for
• a lot, or often, in the tax year 2019 to 2020

You do not need to amend any previous claims, however if these circumstances apply you may use the calculation for future claims.

If your employee is getting Maternity Allowance while they’re on maternity leave, they should not get furlough pay at the same time. However, your employee can end her maternity leave early to be put on furlough. If your employee agrees to be put on furlough and end their maternity leave early, they will need to give you at least 8 weeks’ notice and they will not be eligible for furlough pay until the end of the 8 weeks.

If your employee has variable pay, how you work out their usual wages depends on when they were on your payroll.

For employees’ who were on your payroll on 19 March 2020, that is you made a payment of earnings to them in the tax year 2019 to 2020 which was reported to HMRC on a Real Time Information (RTI) Full Payment Submission (FPS) on or before 19 March 2020 you should calculate 80% of the higher of:

• the wages earned in the previous corresponding calendar period using the calendar lookback method outlined below
• the average wages payable in the tax year 2019 to 2020

For all other employees’ you should calculate 80% of the average wages payable between 6 April 2020 (or, if later, the date the employment started) and the day before they are furloughed on or after 1 November 2020.

If your employee has variable hours you will have completed a similar comparison to work out their usual hours but the outcome may be different.

When you calculate 80% of the wages from the corresponding calendar period in a previous year, the period you look back to depends on the period you are claiming for:

If your employee did not work for you in the lookback period, you can only use the averaging method to calculate 80% of their wages.

For employees on fixed pay, claims for full or part time employees furloughed on return from family-related statutory leave should be calculated against their salary, before tax, not the pay they received whilst on family-related statutory leave. The same principles apply where the employee is returning from a period of unpaid statutory family-related leave.

When you calculate the average wages for employees on variable pay, you should not include days during, or wages related to a period of family-related statutory leave or reduced rate paid leave following a period of family related statutory leave.

However, if the employee was on family-related statutory leave or reduced rate paid leave throughout the entire period used to calculate their average wages then you should include the days during, and wages related to the period of leave as the reference salary would otherwise be zero. This only applies when you are using the averaging method to work out your employee’s wages – the calendar lookback method is based on the amount they actually earned, even if they were on a period of statutory leave.

This is possible and employers are free to agree this with employees.

Yes, in the same way as normal pay.

This is fine as employees are not working anyway. However, employees must receive at least minimum wage for time spent training and, if necessary, this will be at the employer’s cost.

No. When on furlough an employee cannot undertake work for or on behalf of the employer. This includes providing services or generating revenue. Employees on furlough are permitted to undertake voluntary work and/or training provided that employees undertaking online training, for example, must be paid National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage for the time spent training. Any employee would not be regarded as directly or actively engaged in relevant research and development during this training period, and should not be included in any research and development or Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC) claims. Voluntary work does not mean that the employee can volunteer their services to continue working for the employer but rather is in relation to voluntary work unconnected to work which is providing services to the employer. The JRS does not cover employees who are working reduced hours or placed on short time working. Employers are able to bring back to work eligible employees for any amount of time and any shift pattern, while still being able to claim under the Scheme for their normal hours not worked.

Yes, recent guidance has confirmed that whilst on furlough, employees who are union or non-union representatives may undertake duties and activities for the purpose of individual or collective representation of employees or other workers. However, in doing this, they must not provide services to or generate revenue for, or on behalf of the organisation or a linked or associated organisation.

No. Under the JRS employees are not permitted to undertake work even if the employer tops up salary unless they are simply undertaking training or volunteer work as outlined above.

Flexible furlough agreements can last any amount of time. Employees can enter into a flexible furlough agreement more than once.

Although flexible furlough agreements can last any amount of time, the period that you claim for must be for a minimum claim period of 7 calendar days. You can only claim for a period of fewer than 7 days if the period you are claiming for includes either the first or last day of the calendar month, and you have already claimed for the period ending immediately before it.

Yes, the Government Guidance confirms that employees who are clinically extremely vulnerable can be furloughed.

In the absence of a contractual lay off clause, yes. This means that an employer should consult with employees and seek their consent. In the absence of consent, it may be that there will be a redundancy situation and the normal redundancy rules will apply.

Yes, an employee could be furloughed by both employers.

Subject to any restrictions in the employment contract (which could be waived at the employer’s consent), yes the employee can get another job and receive that wage as well as the furlough wage.

Furloughed employees remain employed and will retain all of their normal employment rights, for example the right to SSP and the right to annual leave.

An employer will need to submit the following information to HMRC’s online portal:

• your ePAYE reference number;
• the number of employees being furloughed;
• national insurance numbers for the furloughed employees (if you have one or more without a National Insurance number you should contact HMRC);
• names of the furloughed employees;
• payroll/employee numbers for the furloughed employees (optional);
• your Self-Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference or Corporation Taxpayer Reference or Company Registration Number;
• the claim period (start and end date);
• amount claimed;
• your UK bank account number and sort code;
• the billing address on your bank account;
• your contact name; and
• your phone number

You will also need to provide (where applicable) your:

• name;
• Corporation Tax unique taxpayer reference;
• Self-Assessment unique taxpayer reference;
• company registration number.

If you flexibly furlough employees, you’ll need to agree this with the employee (or reach collective agreement with a trade union) and keep a new written agreement that confirms the new furlough arrangement. You’ll need to:

• make sure that the agreement is consistent with employment, equality and discrimination laws
• keep a written record of the agreement for five years
• keep records of how many hours your employees work and the number of hours they are furloughed (i.e. not working).

You do not need to place all your employees on furlough and you can continue to fully furlough employees if you wish. Employees cannot undertake any work for you during time that you record as them being on furlough.

If the employer is claiming for more than 16 furloughed employees, then it is necessary to upload a file containing each employee’s:

• full name
• National Insurance number
• payroll number (optional)
• furlough start date
• furlough end date (if known)
• full amount claimed
• normal hours (including decimals, for example 7.5)
• actual hours worked (using decimals)
• furloughed hours (using decimals)

You must upload the template in .xlsx or .csv format when you claim. If you already have the claim forms saved in a different format (such as .xls or .ods), you must save them again as .xlsx or .csv files. The other formats are no longer accepted.

Your template may be rejected if you do not give the information in the right format. If your template is rejected, you’ll see a message on the screen and your claim will not be processed.

You’ll need to make sure you:

• provide only the employee information requested here - you might be asked again or your template may be rejected
• submit one line per employee for the whole period
• do not break up the calculation into multiple periods within the claim
• do not split data by contract type (for example, those paid weekly and monthly should be claimed for together)
• do not provide more or less columns than needed
• upload your file as a .xlsx or .csv (or you can save existing .xls or .ods file types as .xlsx or .csv before uploading them)

Employers will need to calculate the amount that they are claiming and should note that HMRC retains the right to retrospectively audit all aspects of the claim.

If you do not finish your claim in one session, you can save a draft. You must complete your claim within 7 days of starting it.

HMRC will then check that the claim is correct and pay the claim amount by Bacs into your bank account within 6 working days.

Employers must keep all records for six years including:

• the amount claimed and claim period for each employee
• the claim reference number
• the calculations in case HMRC need more information about the claim

It is still up to the employer to pay the wages to the employee directly. If this is not done, then this will be a breach of contract regardless of whether or not money has been received from HMRC. However, it may be possible to agree with employees that payment will be late. Employees would be within their rights to refuse to consent to this and to make a claim to the Tribunal for unlawful deduction from wages. However, it would take some time for this claim to be processed and, in the circumstances, the employees may be content to wait.

Yes, details are available here https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/get-help-with-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme but a high number of calls are anticipated and employers are encouraged to only contact HMRC if it is essential.

In relation to your salary which goes through the PAYE scheme – yes, you can access the Job Retention Scheme for support up to a maximum permitted under the scheme if eligibility requirements are met. However, as with normal furloughed employees you cannot work for the company. However, there are limited exceptions in relation to doing work which include: where it is necessary in fulfilling a duty or other obligation arising by or under an Act of Parliament relating to the filing of company accounts or provision of other information relating to the administration of the director’s company, making a claim under the Scheme in respect of an employee of the director’s company; and making a payment of salary or wages of an employee of the director’s company.  

In relation to the balance of your income which is extracted via dividends, unfortunately the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will only support self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) however is not extended to directors of limited companies.

Those who do not qualify for the scheme will be able to explore other support including an increase in the Universal Credit allowance, income tax deferrals, £1 billion more support for renters and access to three-month mortgage holidays.

Yes, those paid annually are eligible to claim, as long as they meet the relevant conditions. An employer can make their claim in anticipation of an imminent payroll run, at the point they run their payroll or after they have run their payroll.

There is no obligation to bring an employee back to work after the period of furlough. If the employer chooses to make individuals redundant the usual rules for redundancy will apply. While it was previously possible to furlough an employee during their notice period and claim part of this pay through the furlough scheme since 1 December 2020 this is no longer allowed. Grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments.
Note employees will maintain rights against unfair dismissal and to redundancy payments during the period of furlough.

The reference salary should not include the cost of non-monetary benefits provided to employees, including taxable Benefits in Kind. Similarly, benefits provided through salary sacrifice schemes (including pension contributions) that reduce an employee’s taxable pay should also not be included in the reference salary. Where the employer provides benefits to furloughed employees, this should be in addition to the wages that must be paid under the terms of the Job Retention Scheme. It is a condition of the Scheme that all of the money received goes to the employee without deduction. However, recent guidance has confirmed that if an employee had previously authorised their employer to make deductions from their salary, these deductions can continue while the employee is furloughed provided that these deductions are not administration charges, fees or other costs in connection with the employment.

While it is possible for furloughed employees to get a new job the Scheme states that furloughed employees cannot work for a linked organization so this would not be permissible. Specialist advice should be sought before engaging in any arrangement such as this to ensure that you are acting in accordance with the Scheme.

If you make a mistake it is possible to delete a claim in the online service but you must do this within 72 hours. If you have made an error in a claim that has resulted in an over-claimed amount, you must pay this back to HMRC. You can report an over-claimed amount as part of your next claim. You will be asked when making your claim whether you need to reduce the amount down to take account of a previous over-claim. Your new claim amount will be reduced to reflect this over-claimed amount and you should keep a record of this adjustment for six years.

If you have made an error in a claim and do not plan to submit further claims or you’d like to make a voluntary repayment because you do not want or need the grant to pay your employees’ wages, tax and National Insurance and pension contributions, you should use the online service to get your payment reference number before you can pay HMRC back. Once you have your reference number you can pay by Faster Payments, CHAPS or Bacs to HMRC’s account. You can also pay by debit card or corporate credit card.

If you’ve over-claimed a grant and have not repaid it, you must notify HMRC by the latest of either:

• 90 days after the date you received the grant you were not entitled to
• 90 days after the date you received the grant that you were no longer entitled to keep because your circumstances changed
• 20 October 2020

If you do not do this, you may have to pay a penalty. If you do repay any over-claimed grant, this will prevent any potential tax liability in respect of the overpayment of Scheme. HMRC has confirmed that it will not be actively looking for innocent errors in their compliance approach.

If you have made an error that has resulted in an under-claimed amount, you should contact HMRC to amend your claim. As you are increasing the amount of your claim, they will need to conduct additional checks.

The deadlines to amend claims are as follows:

HMRC may recover the full amount of the overpaid grant by making a tax assessment for the amount that you were not entitled to and have not repaid. If HMRC makes an assessment, they will write to you tell you about it. The assessment is equal to the amount to which you’re not entitled including any amounts that you have not used to pay furloughed employee wages and associated costs within a reasonable period. Payment of the amount assessed is due 30 days after the assessment. HMRC will charge interest on late payments. HMRC may also charge late payment penalties if the amount remains unpaid 31 days after the due date.

Company officers, who knew the company had over-claimed a CJRS grant at the time it was received or knew at such other time when a tax liability arose the claim was overpaid or not used for the intended purpose, can be made personally liable to pay the tax charged on their company’s overpaid CJRS grants in circumstances where the company is in insolvency and the tax cannot be recovered from the company. HMRC may charge you a penalty in addition to the over-claimed amount. When deciding the amount of any penalty, they will take account of whether you knew you were entitled to the CJRS grant when you received it, or you knew when it became repayable or chargeable to tax because your circumstances changed. If you knew you were not entitled to your grant when you received it or knew when you had stopped being entitled to it because of a change of circumstances and didn’t tell HMRC in the notification period then the law treats your failure as deliberate and concealed. This means a penalty of up to 100% could be charged on the amount of the CJRS grant that you were not entitled to receive or keep and had not repaid by the last day of the notification period.   Other factors that are typically taken into consideration when calculating a failure to notify penalty will also be considered.

Deliberate penalties, arising as a consequence of an incorrect CJRS grant claim, will fall under the Publishing details of Deliberate Defaulters (PDDD).

In particularly serious breaches there could also be criminal repercussions as was seen in the arrest of several men in England on suspicion of involvement in a £495,000 fraud on the CJRS. In this case HMRC executed a search warrant, seized computers and froze funds held in a bank account connected to the business.

HMRC has started to make public details of employer claims starting on or after 1 December and this can be viewed here. This does not include employers that have a successful or pending claim to have their details withheld or employers that paid back the grant before the list was produced. HMRC has published the below information for December 2020 to June 2021 claims including:

• an indication of the value of the claim within a banded range
• the company number for companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)

The banded ranges are:

• £1 to £10,000
• £10,001 to £25,000
• £25,001 to £50,000
• £50,001 to 100,000
• £100,001 to £250,000
• £250,001 to £500,000
• £500,001 to £1,000,000
• £1,000,001 to - £2,500,000
• £2,500,001 to £5,000,000
• £5,000,001 to £10,000,000
• £10,000,001 to £25,000,000
• £25,000,001 to £50,000,000
• £50,000,001 to £100,000,000
• £100,000,001 and above

Employers that have repaid the full amount of the grant will not be included.

Information will be updated monthly and July 2021 claims will be available to view from 7 October 2021 and previously published information will be refreshed to take account of any amendments or repayments made.

HMRC will also be improving the information available to furloughed employees by including details of claims made for them, for claim periods from 1 December 2020 to June 2021 in their Personal Tax Account on GOV.UK

HMRC will not publish details of employers claiming through the scheme if you can show that publicising these would result in a serious risk of violence or intimidation to certain relevant individuals, any individual living with them, or individuals associated with the business or anyone living with them.

Examples of individuals associated with the business include:

• an employee
• a director, officer or employee of that company
• a partner, officer or employee of that partnership
• a member or employee of a limited liability partnership
• a settlor, trustee or beneficiary of a trust

You must make this request yourself, agents cannot do it for you. HMRC will not publish any of your details until a decision has been made and you’ve been informed.

To submit a request, you’ll need your:

• employer Government Gateway ID and password
• employer PAYE reference number
• business name
• contact details

You must provide evidence of why you think there would be a serious risk. Evidence can be:

• written details of why you think publication could lead to the threat of violence or intimidation
• a police incident number if you’ve already been threatened or attacked
• photos of a previous threat or attack
• evidence of possible disruption or targeting
• any other material which can support your request

The conditions of furlough, including how long it will last, should be notified to the employee at the time when they are furloughed. Complications may arise where the employer I seeking to un-furlough some employees, but not others. As with the decision to furlough employees in the first place, the decision to un-furlough them should be on justifiable, non-discriminatory, business grounds. Justifiable considerations may include skills/experience of employees, time spent on furlough (first furloughed first un-furloughed), the amount of work available and the preferences of the employees.

Communication with staff is key and returners will have to be reassured that their return is in accordance with public health guidance. Where possible, working from home should be encouraged.

HMRC has confirmed that while it was previously possible to furlough an employee during their notice period and claim part of this pay through the furlough scheme since 1 December this is no longer allowed. Therefore, it would not be possible to keep the employee on notice of redundancy while they are furloughed. This also applies to employees that are serving notice following resignation or retirement.

Previously employees who were made redundant or stopped working for their employer after could be re-employed and claimed for. For periods starting on or after 1 May 2021, you can claim for employees who were employed on 2 March 2021, as long as you have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee. Therefore, this may allow employees to be re-employed and furloughed.

Employers are able to bring back to work eligible employees for any amount of time and any shift pattern, while still being able to claim under the Scheme for their normal hours not worked. This means that furloughed employees will no longer need to avoid doing any work for you. They can start to work for some of the week but be furloughed for the rest of it. It is up to the employer (with agreement from the employee) to decide the hours of work and the hours of furlough.

Flexible furlough agreements can last any amount of time. Employees can enter into a flexible furlough agreement more than once. Although flexible furlough agreements can last any amount of time, the period that you claim for must be for a minimum claim period of 7 calendar days. You can only claim for a period of fewer than 7 days if the period you are claiming for includes either the first or last day of the calendar month, and you have already claimed for the period ending immediately before it.

You need to identify the employee’s reference date to know which calculation rules you should use and because some calculations use the employee’s reference date in the calculation steps.

The employee’s reference date is 19 March 2020 if:

• you made a payment of earnings to the employee in the tax year 2019 to 2020 (and reported this to HMRC on a Real Time Information (RTI) Full Payment Submission (FPS) on or before 19 March 2020)
• you made a valid Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim for the employee for a claim period ending on or before 31 October 2020
• the employee was on their previous employer’s payroll on 28 February 2020, was transferred to you by that employer after 28 February 2020 and the TUPE or business succession rules applied to the transfer

Where the 19 March 2020 employee reference date does not apply, then the employee’s reference date is 30 October 2020 if:

• you made a payment of earnings to the employee which was reported to HMRC on an RTI FPS between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020 (inclusive)
• you made a valid Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim for the employee for a claim period between 1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021
• the employee was on their previous employer’s payroll on or before 30 October 2020, was transferred to you by that employer after 31 August 2020 and the TUPE or business succession rules applied to the transfer

Where neither 19 March 2020 nor 30 October 2020 reference dates apply the employee is not eligible for periods starting before 1 May 2021. If you made a payment of earnings to the employee which was reported to HMRC on an RTI FPS between 31 October 2020 and 2 March 2021 (inclusive) they may be eligible for periods starting on or after 1 May 2021 and their reference date will be 2 March 2021.

If an employee with variable pay has a reference date of 19 March 2020 or 30 October 2020 because they were transferred to you by their previous employer under the TUPE or Business Succession rules, you may have to take into account their period of employment with their previous employer in your calculations. See how this affects how you calculate their usual hours and usual wages.

Until June 2021 the maximum wage amount is £2,500 a month, or £576.92 a week. If you are calculating for the entire claim period you should use the full monthly maximum wage mount if the claim period is a full month, otherwise you should use the daily maximum wage amount.

If you are calculating for each pay period, or part of a pay period, that falls within your claim period you should use the:

• Weekly maximum wage amount for each period that is a full pay period lasting 1, 2 or 4 weeks
• Daily maximum wage amount for any other pay period or partial period.

When you use the daily maximum wage amount, multiply the daily maximum wage amount by the number of calendar days your employee is furloughed for in the period.

No, you could choose to keep an employees furloughed.

No, holiday pay continues to accrue at 100% regardless of whether the employee is working full time, furloughed or on flexible furlough.

Guidance has confirmed that employees should not be placed on furlough for a period simply because they are on holiday for that period. Similarly, employees should not be placed on furlough just because the employer normally does less business over the festive period and staff normally are made to take holidays then. Presumably this is because HMRC would view this as being an abuse of the scheme.

If your employee stops being furloughed or flexibly furloughed partway through a claim period, when calculating the number of furloughed hours you can claim for, make sure you:

• only calculate the employee’s usual hours up to the last day of furlough, instead of to the end of the claim period
• do not include any working hours after the last day of furlough

This applies even if your claim period includes days after the employee’s last day of furlough (for example, because you’re claiming for multiple employees and some of them stay on furlough).

You can claim before, during or after you process your payroll as long as your claim is submitted by the relevant claim deadline. You cannot submit your claim more than 14 days before your claim period end date.

When making your claim, you:

• do not have to wait until the end date of the claim period for a previous claim before making your next claim
• can make your claim more than 14 days in advance of the pay date (for example, if you pay your employee in arrears)

It is no longer possible to claim for periods prior to June 2021.

Claims must be submitted by 11.59pm 14 calendar days after the month you’re claiming for. If this time falls on the weekend or a bank holiday. then claims should be submitted on the next working day.

HMRC may accept a claim made after the relevant deadline if you had a reasonable excuse for failing to make a claim in time despite taking reasonable care to do so and you then claimed without delay after the excuse no longer applied. You may have a reasonable excuse if for example:

• your partner or another close relative died shortly before the claim deadline
• you had an unexpected stay in hospital that prevented you from dealing with your claim
• you had a serious or life-threatening illness, including Coronavirus related illnesses, which prevented you from making your claim (and no one else could claim for you)
• a period of self-isolation prevented you from making your claim (and no one else could make the claim for you)
• your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online claim
• service issues with HMRC online services prevented you from making your claim
• a fire, flood or theft prevented you them from making your claim
• postal delays that you could not have predicted prevented you from making your claim
• delays related to a disability you have prevented you from making your claim
• an HMRC error prevented you from making your claim

HMRC will not consider reasonable excuses in advance of a claim deadline.

The rules for claiming the allowance are the same, even if you claimed a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant for your Class 1 employer National Insurance contributions costs for a claim period ending on or before 31 July 2020. You were only able to claim for a grant towards your Class 1 employer National Insurance contributions for periods between 1 March 2020 and 31 July 2020.

If you’re eligible you can use the Employment Allowance to pay less employer National Insurance contributions until the allowance runs out or until the end of the tax year, whichever comes first. The Employment Allowance cannot be manually spread over the tax year if it would otherwise be used up sooner.

When working out how much employer National Insurance contributions you could have claimed back from the scheme, you should have subtracted any Employment Allowance you used in that pay period.

If you claimed the allowance and you did not have to pay any employer National Insurance contributions in a pay period, you should not have claimed for any employer National Insurance contributions costs through the scheme.

If the amount of Employment Allowance you claimed did not cover the total employer National Insurance contributions due, the grant you could have claimed was the lower of the:

• grant towards employer National Insurance contributions costs that you already calculated
• employer National Insurance contributions costs that you paid, or expect to pay, across your entire payroll

Employment Allowance can be claimed at any point in the tax year you’re claiming for, or for 4 years afterwards. If you’ve claimed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the grant for employer National Insurance contributions for periods on or before July, you must ensure that you do not receive relief for the same employer National Insurance contributions costs twice.

July 2020 was the last month for which you could claim a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant towards National Insurance Contributions. You should have reduced the National Insurance contributions element of your Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claims to take account of the Employment Allowance. If you have claimed too much you should contact HMRC’s employer helpline and they will change the value of your Employment Allowance claim.

If you delay your Employment Allowance claim and have unused allowance available at the end of the tax year, you can use this to reduce other tax costs. If you received a grant for employer National Insurance contributions costs through the scheme, you cannot claim the Employment Allowance against those same contributions. You should not include any National Insurance contributions covered through the scheme when calculating your Employment Allowance entitlement. If you included these, you’d wrongly get relief for the same cost twice. Attempting to get relief for the same costs twice is fraudulent and may result in claims being investigated.

You can read previous versions of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme guidance on The National Archives to check the eligibility of claim periods ending on or before 30 June and check which employees you could put on furlough.