Job Retention Scheme: Claiming for notice periods and publication of employers

The Job Retention Scheme has been extended to 31 March 2021 but the detail is fast changing and employers using the scheme should keep up to date.  Here is a summary of the latest changes announced on 13 November 2020.

Notice Periods

For claim periods relating to November, you can continue to claim for a furloughed employee who is serving a statutory notice period, however grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments.  Therefore, if you make redundancies and keep employees on the payroll for their notice, you can claim for the statutory notice period.  However, the position regarding contractual notice is unclear since the Guidance only refers to statutory notice.

However, the Guidance has now been amended to make clear that employers cannot claim for employees serving contractual or statutory notice from 1st December 2020. This is the rule regardless of the reason for termination of employment so would include situations where employees have been made redundant, have resigned or are retiring. Presumably this accords with the scheme’s purpose of retaining jobs, but it is a departure from the previous position.

Adjustments to claims will need to be made to ensure compliance with the rule for example if an employee starts a contractual or statutory notice period on a day covered by a previously submitted claim.

Publication

In another major change, from 1st December 2020, HMRC intend to publish the names of employers who are claiming under the scheme including a “reasonable indication” of the amount claimed. It is understood that HMRC will only publish with respect to claims from 1st December 2020.   

This again represents a departure from the previous position and may be intended to make larger employers and those who have done well out of the pandemic think twice before claiming.

There is an ability to apply to HMRC to prevent publication for example if you can demonstrate that publication would expose your workforce to serious risk of violence or intimidation.

Deadline for claims

30 November 2020 is the last day employers can submit or change claims for period ending on or before 31 October 2020.

Claims under CJRS for November 2020 must be submitted by 14 December 2020

If you are concerned about any of these changes and would like to discuss them, please contact a member of our Employment Law Team.