CJRS furlough changes from May 2021
HMRC amended its guidance regarding the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) to allow for new entrants. If you have employees who have previously been ineligible for the CJRS, as they were not on your payroll on 30 October 2020, they may now be eligible for periods from 1 May 2021 onwards.
From 1 May 2021, employers will be able to claim for eligible employees who were on their PAYE payroll on 2 March 2021. This means you must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying HMRC of earnings for that employee.
Your employees do not need to have benefitted from the scheme before to make a claim, as long as they meet the eligibility criteria.
Tena Wallace, HR & Payroll Director, Visionary Accountants, St Albans said:
"The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) or Furlough scheme, is a crucial package of support for employers whose businesses have been adversely affected by the Covid pandemic and resulting national lockdowns. The rules are complex though and some employers don't know that they can claim for employees who may not have been eligible before. Here at Visionary Accountants we do the claim assessments for our clients to make sure they don't miss out. It's really important that employers understand what they can and can't do to take advantage of this support. It's another good reason for employers to consider outsourcing their payroll services to us."
You can claim for employees who are taxed as employees and reported by PAYE, on any type of employment contract. This includes contracts that are:
- full-time
- part-time
- with an agency
- flexible
- zero-hour
Foreign nationals are eligible to be furloughed. Grants under the scheme are not counted as ‘access to public funds’, and you can furlough employees on all categories of visa.
You can claim for the following as long as they're paid through PAYE:
- office holders (including company directors)
- salaried member of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)
- agency workers (including those employed by umbrella companies)
- limb (b) workers
- contingent workers in the public sector
- contractors in scope of the off-payroll working (IR35) rules and engaged with either:
- the public sector
- a medium-sized organisation or large-sized organisation (client organisations)
- individuals with an annual pay period
Changes to CJRS claims for variable pay from May
For periods from 1 May, when calculating the average wages for employees who are not on a fixed salary, you should no longer include periods of:
- Statutory Sick Pay related leave
- family related statutory leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of Statutory Sick Pay or family related leave.
However, if an employee was on one of these types of leave for the entire period used to calculate their average wages, then you should continue to include the days and wages related to that leave.
Please contact our payroll department on (01727) 730550 or at enquiries@visionaryaccountants.co.uk for further advice or guidance.