13/11/2020 Updated CJRS & Treasury Direction

Not only are we in lockdown again, the weather was atrocious over the weekend and Friday 13 came and went, but not before The Treasury updated their guidance on the CJRS and issued a further Treasury Direction on Friday evening.

Thanks to our friends at Crossland Employment Solicitors who published the following brief;

The update covers the period 1 November to 31 January 2021 when the scheme will be reassessed. Remember that guidance is exactly what it says on the tin but a Treasury Direction has some sort of legal standing, although no-one is quite sure what! The Direction is long and not very user friendly but here are the important additional bits:

CJRS Bonus scheme – officially abandoned

The Directive officially revokes this, because the extended furlough scheme supersedes it.

Employees serving notice – changes from 1 December

One of the most critical outstanding points following the announcement at the end of October of the extended furlough scheme, the guidance and the Direction are all now aligned in confirming that an employee serving any kind of notice cannot be claimed for under the furlough scheme from 1 December 2020. This includes resignation and notice of retirement. 

What is less clear is the situation between 1-30 November. The Directive says nothing about not being able to claim for employees serving notice in this period. The employer’s guidance says that only employees serving statutory notice can be claimed for (1 week for every complete year worked) but the employee’s guidance says that the employer can claim for employees if they are serving either statutory or contractual notice. Given the strict claim periods it might be better to utilise the Directive’s silence and the employee’s guide (can be downloaded as a PDF) and claim for both statutory and contractual and adjust this if it turns out to be wrong.

 
Claim periods

There are minimum claim periods of 7 days. This does not mean there is a minimum period of furlough – you can furlough for any period and any hours. The maximum claim periods are calendar months and claims and amendments must be made to a strict timetable (although HMRC say they will consider an extension of both dates in special circumstances):

Relevant date for salary

If the employee (widely defined) worked for you on 19 March 2020 and you submitted an RTI submission on or before then, then it is the salary at that date – if not then it is 30 October 2020.

Publication of employer details

HMRC will publish further details about what they intend to put into the public domain about who has claimed. However, what we do know is that it will be the employer name and company registration number (if applicable) and the approximate value of the claim. HMRC will consider applications not to publish this information if you can show that publicising these would result in a serious risk of violence or intimidation to certain individuals, or any individual living with them.

Those individuals include:

• employers that are individuals – the employer themselves, or any employee of the employer
• employers that are companies – a director, officer or employee of that company
• employers that are partnerships – a partner, officer or employee of that partnership
• employers that are limited liability partnerships – a member or employee of that limited liability partnership
• trustees of a trust – a settlor, trustee or beneficiary of the trust

Evidence of this perceived threat could include:

• a police incident number if you’ve been threatened or attacked
• documentary evidence of a threat or attack, such as photos or recordings
• evidence of possible disruption or targeting