The coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) is constantly evolving, and there are a number of changes which apply for claims periods starting on and after 1 May 2021.
All CJRS claims for periods in May 2021 need to be submitted before midnight on 14 June 2021. Employers who are claiming for 100 or more employees on a single claim have always been able to submit the details of all employees on a spreadsheet template. Now there is a new spreadsheet template to claim for 16 to 99 employers in one go. This will save many smaller employers and tax agents a lot of time.
This new template is also forgiving of missing national insurance numbers. If you don’t have that information, you can use the payroll number instead.
From 1 May 2021 the calculation for variable paid employees who work variable hours has changed, to make it more logical. Now both the calculations of average pay and average hours should align to better reflect the amount the employee would have received while they were working.
For any periods of furlough from 1 May 2021, do not take into account days of statutory leave: SSP or family-related leave when using the averaging calculation for variable hours. You should also disregard the pay relating to those statutory leave days.
Some workers who are not employees can be included in a CJRS claim, for example those treated as deemed employees under the off-payroll working rules. This will apply to many more contractors in the private sector from 6 April 2021.
Where employees have been shielding or have caring responsibilities which mean they are unable to work, they remain eligible to be included in a CJRS claim even though the shielding restrictions have been lifted.
Written by the Tax Advice Network