Flexible furlough from 1 July under scaled back CJRS

 The Chancellor has announced the government’s plans to change the CJRS which will now be re-engineered to support businesses sending staff back to work. Employers will be able to put staff on part-time furlough, claiming the CJRS grant for a portion of their salary.

Flexible furloughing of employees starts from 1 July onwards. The hours and shift patterns employees work can be decided by the employer to suit the needs of their business. Employers will pay the wages for the time employees are in work and can apply for a job retention scheme grant to cover any of the usual hours the employee is still furloughed for. Employees can still be kept on full furlough if needed. 
 
Note for employers:
​Employees must have been furloughed under the initial scheme (CJRS V1) for them to be eligible for a furlough grant under the revised scheme (CJRS V2). Note that since there is a three-week minimum furlough requirement under the initial rules, it follows that any new period of furlough leave must have started by 10 June 2020 to be complete when the initial scheme ends on 30 June and so ensure the employee remains eligible for CJRS V2 from the 1 July.

In July the grant will be calculated on the same basis (the lesser of 80% of pay and £2,500). The intention is that the government will reduce its contribution over the remaining months of the scheme – August to October – with a corresponding increase in the employer contribution. Note that from 1 August onwards, the scheme will no longer cover the cost of employers’ National Insurance nor pension contributions applicable to the grant.

Further points to note:

• Claims for periods ending on or before 30 June, must be made by 31 J‌ul‌y.
  
• A new minimum reporting period of one week will apply from 1 August 2020. More frequent claims will not be accepted, but the reporting period can be longer.
• From 1 July, claim periods will no longer be able to overlap months, employers who previously submitted claims with periods that overlapped calendar months will no longer be able to do this going forward. This is necessary to reflect the forthcoming changes to the scheme.
• The new calculation will apply from 1 July to factor in the cost of hours worked to hours furloughed ratio.
• Employers will need to report hours worked and the usual hours an employee would be expected to work in a claim period. 
• For worked hours, employees will be paid by their employer subject to their employment contract and employers will be responsible for paying the tax and NICs due on those amounts
• There will be a new maximum limit to the number of staff who can be included on a claim. This will be based on the maximum staff ever included in a single claim under CJRS V1.
• CJRS V2 will end on 31 October 2020.