On 31 October, a few hours before CJRS was due to end, the Prime Minister announced that it would be extended during November and the funding for employers made more generous. The launch of the Job Support Scheme, which was due to start on 1 November, has been postponed.
Apart from the fact that employers’ contributions will be limited to national insurance and pension contributions (ie the level of contributions that applied in August) the extended Scheme is expected to operate in much the same way as the flexible CJRS which launched in July. Some rules, however, may change. We already know, for example, that employees must have been on the payroll as at 30 October to be eligible.
Brief details of how the extension will work are included in this treasury press release. Further details are expected shortly, but it has been confirmed that “there will be no gap in eligibility for support between the previously announced end-date of CJRS and this extension”.
The extension of CJRS will apply across the UK, though it can be assumed that the decision to place the whole of England in lockdown from 5 November was a major factor in the Government’s change of position about when the Scheme would end.
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