The furlough scheme comes to an end on 31 October, so the job retention bonus is designed to encourage employers to keep their staff on the payroll into 2021. The bonus will be a £1,000 for every employee the employer continuously employs from the end of the period for which they were last furloughed to 31 January 2021.
The employee must have been included in an eligible CJRS claim by the employer. If the employer has repaid CJRS funds received for the employee it cannot claim the bonus.
Directors, office holders and agency staff can qualify for the bonus if all the conditions are met:
- The employee must be paid in every tax month ending: 5 December, 5 January and 5 February 2021, and their total gross taxable pay (before allowances) for those months must be at least £1,560.
- The employee must not be placed on contractual or statutory notice to end their employment contract in this period, which includes for retirement and well as redundancy. It would be an abuse of the scheme to delay reporting a leaving date under RTI.
The employer must submit all of their RTI returns on time and accurately for the pay periods from 6 April 2020 to 5 February 2021. Any information requested by HMRC concerning CJRS claims must be supplied before submitting a job retention bonus claim.
The portal to claim the bonus will open from 15 February to 31 March 2021, and we will be able to make claims on behalf of our clients. The final CJRS claims must be submitted by 30 November 2020.