CJRS Guidance Changes 07 and 11 September 2020!
Two changes to report, made in National Payroll Week. More copies of guidance to add to our E-libraries and more changes that are advised too late for employers to action. The 4 changes are all to do with working out what can be claimed and actually making the claim…….
Start, as always, at the ‘collection’ page on Gov.UK. There are links to all guidance here but I detail below the pieces that have changed:
This guidance was first published on 20 April 2020 and updated on 07 September 2020. This was the 20th time it has been updated (leaving aside the one time that the history section says a Welsh translation was added).
The update says:
This is a direct reference to the change in the guidance under the part ‘You’ll need to ensure that you:’ when referring to what actions an employer has to take when claiming via a template for 100 or more employees. This is because the template format itself has changed and added a column ‘Statutory Leaver Returner?’. This is only the 2nd change to the format of the template since it was first made available on 19 June 2020.
If your furlough claim relates to someone furloughed for the first time and they have just returned from a period of statutory leave (maternity, adoption etc), the spreadsheet (or your payroll software’s equivalent) must indicate ‘yes’ in this column.
More guidance for employers. Published for the first time on 12 June 2020 with the 11 September 2020 update being the 5th time it has been updated.
The update includes a new section entitled ‘Calculating the number of working and furloughed hours for an employee that comes off furlough or flexible furlough partway through a claim period’. As per the section title, this is where an employee stops being furloughed (or flexibly furloughed) and it is part-way through a claim period – e.g. they come back mid-month but the claim is for the full calendar month.
The change is that, when calculating the furloughed hours that can be claimed, only use the usual hours up to and including the last day of furlough (or flexible furlough).
Usual hours and the associated calculation are required where the employee is flexibly furloughed. They are not required when the employee is fully furloughed – an employee is fully furloughed if they do not do any work for the employer during the claim period.
Therefore, by default, even if an employee comes off of a period of being fully furloughed mid-way through the claim period, the hours calculation must still be used.
This must be used for claims from 14 September 2020 and there is no requirement to correct claims prior to this date.
There is a line is the guidance which says ‘Where employees have been furloughed or flexibly furloughed continuously (or both), the claim periods must follow on from each other with no gaps in between the dates’.
With the increasing number of local lockdowns, however, what happens when all staff return on, say, 25 September 2020 with the intention that this will be a permanent return to employment. Then, the business is affected by restrictions and is forced to furlough staff again on, say, 05 October 2020. The claim for September will have ended on 25 September but restarted on 05 October – a gap and two separate claim months where the employee was not fully furloughed (assuming that the employer is making monthly claims).
Not really sure that I tie-up the new way of calculation and the condition that the dates on the claims must be continuous. Am I the only one confused?
Another one for employers, published 12 June 2020 with the 11 September 2020 update being the 7th time it has been updated (excluding the Welsh translation update).
The update is the same as the above, the new section entitled ‘Calculating the number of working and furloughed hours for an employee that comes off furlough or flexible furlough partway through a claim period’.
First published 14 May 2020 with the 11 September 2020 update being the 7th time it has changed (excluding the Welsh translations). There are actually two links here:
- Examples of how to calculate your employees' wages, National Insurance contributions and pension contributions
- Full examples of how to calculate the amount you should claim for an employee who is flexibly furloughed
Although both say that they have been updated on 11 September, it is actually only the first one that has changed. The change is in line with the above and the insertion of a new section ‘Calculating the number of working and furloughed hours for an employee that comes off furlough or flexible furlough partway through a claim period’.
Example 3.3 has a wording change to say that if an employee returns from a period of full or flexi furlough, only the usual, working and furloughed hours up to and including the last day of furlough (or flexible furlough) should be used in the reclaim calculation.
This guidance (for individuals) has still not been changed. It still conveys to individuals that the grant reclaim is 80% capped at ￡2,500 (when, from 01 September 2020, the grant reclaim is 70% capped at ￡2,187.50).
Compliance is going to be a big activity for HMRC over the coming months and years. This is as a result of increased investigatory powers granted in the Finance Act. It’s little comfort really to read HMRC’s Policy Paper of 27 August 2020 which says:
Employers can notify HMRC with reference to the ‘If you've claimed too much or not enough’ guidance, last updated 20 August 2020.
