Coronavirus: UK Job Support Scheme – key details for employers
September 24, 2020
Authored by: Rebecca Harding-Hill and Mark Kaye
As we reported previously, on 12 May 2020 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (“CJRS”) would be extended until 31 October 2020. With just over 5 weeks until the CJRS ends, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has, today, made an announcement setting out the government’s package of measures designed to protect UK jobs through the winter.
Job Support Scheme
With effect from 1 November 2020, the new Job Support Scheme (“JSS”) will come into force. The key details of the JSS are as follows:
- It is designed to support the wages of employees who are in viable jobs, but on shorter working hours.
- Employees must work at least 1/3 of their normal working hours and be paid by their employer for those hours.
- For the hours not worked, the government and the employer will each pay one third of an employee’s salary.
- The level of grant will be calculated based on an employee’s usual salary, capped at £697.92 per month.
- All small and medium enterprises are eligible to participate in the JSS.
- Larger businesses, whose turnover has fallen as a result of coronavirus, are also eligible to participate in the JSS, subject to complying with certain conditions, including restrictions on capital distributions to their shareholders.
- The JSS is open to all employers, including those who have not participated in the CJRS.
- The JSS will remain in force for 6 months from 1 November 2020.
- Employers will not be permitted to issue notices