BrightPay release CJRS claim report

A CJRS Claim Report was released on the 23rd April in BrightPay to assist users in ascertaining the amounts needed for input into HMRC's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme online service.

BrightPay’s CJRS Claim Report includes claim amounts for each employee detailing furlough start date, furlough end date (if known), gross pay claim, employer NIC claim, employer pension claim and the total claim amount.

Employers will need to make a claim for wage costs through an online portal on GOV.UK, which was launched on 20th April. The only way to make a claim is online. HMRC has worked to make the portal simple to use and any support you need is available on GOV.UK. Businesses will need their Government Gateway user ID and password to login to the online portal.

Video Tutorial: See how BrightPay's CJRS Claim Report works

How to make a claim

You’ll need to provide the following to make a claim:

• The bank account number and sort code you’d like HMRC to use when they pay the claim.
• The name and phone number of the person in your business for HMRC to call with any questions.
• Your Self-Assessment UTR (Unique Tax Reference), Company UTR or CRN (Company Registration Number), where applicable.
• The name, employee number and National Insurance number for each of your furloughed employees.
• The total amount being claimed for all employees and the total furlough period.

If you have fewer than 100 furloughed staff, you will need to input your information directly into the system for each employee.

If you are an employer with more than 100 employees, you will need to upload a file with additional information for each employee, including the claim amount per furloughed employee and the furlough start and end date (if known) for each furloughed employee. If you have more than 100 employees, BrightPay gives users the option to create a CSV file, ready to be uploaded into HMRC's online service containing the details of your claim.

Free COVID-19 & Payroll Webinar

What You Need To Know about HMRC’s Claim Portal, COVID-19 Related SSP & Furlough Leave

All businesses, regardless of size, will be affected by the government measures for the foreseeable future. As the COVID-19 virus spreads across the UK, the government has introduced measures for employers to continue to pay their employees and to support businesses.

This webinar covers:

• Claiming for wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• How BrightPay’s CJRS Claim Report works
• Catering for COVID-19 Related Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
• How furlough leave applies to your employees

Posted byKaren BennettinCoronavirus

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: What are the employment law issues?

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme allows employers to access financial support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary that would otherwise have been laid off due to COVID-19. Essentially, it’s a way of preventing layoffs and redundancies.

If you have any employees who have been placed on a leave of absence, they would be considered a furloughed employee. Changing the status of an employee to a furloughed worker remains subject to existing employment law. Earlier guidance said you had to give employees notice of being placed on furlough. Most recent guidance stated that you have to provide written notice and you must keep a record of this for 5 years.

BrightPay have put together a template letter that employers can use to give to employees that are being placed on furlough leave.

Generally, where an employee’s contract contains a layoff or short term clause, employers should be able to place employees on furlough leave. However, where there is no such clause, it is best advised to get agreement from the employee. Where employers are not topping up the 80% government payment, employers should write to their employees seeking agreement from the employee, as a 20% reduction in salary will be a change to the terms and conditions of their employment.

Given the current situation, it’s expected that most employees would agree to the changes, as the alternative probably works out worse for the employee. That said, employers are advised to get agreement from their employees as part of their furlough leave process.

On another note in relation to employment issues, if an employer is making a decision on who to offer furlough to, equality and discrimination laws apply in the usual way.

Employees that have been furloughed have the same rights as they did previously. That includes Statutory Sick Pay entitlement, maternity rights, other parental rights, rights against unfair dismissal and to redundancy payments.

When the government ends the scheme, you must make a decision, depending on your circumstances, as to whether employees can return to their duties. If not, it may be necessary to consider termination of employment, i.e. redundancy. Any redundancies at the end of this scheme will still have the same statutory obligations attached, as these individuals are still treated as being employed while they are furloughed.

Additional Resources:

• Template Furlough Letter
• Template Letter - Furlough Leave Extension
• Template Letter - Rejecting Furlough Request
  
  

Join BrightPay for a free COVID-19 webinar where we discuss what you need to know about remote working, processing SSP, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and placing employees on furlough leave. 

Places are limited - Click here to book your place now.

Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme Updates

The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate scheme was introduced to repay employers the current amount of Statutory Sick Pay paid to current or former employees on or after 13th March 2020 for periods of sickness. The amount an employer can claim is for up to 2 weeks sick leave for an employee that cannot work due to the following:

• Have coronavirus
• Are self-isolating at home
• Due to public health guidance the employee is shielding

Only the current rate of SSP can be claimed, even if the employer pays the employee more than the current rate of SSP. Employers do not have to have doctor’s fit note from their employees for this claim. An employer’s claim amount cannot be more than the maximum of €800,000 of state aid in accordance with the EU Commission temporary framework. This is when included with other aid obtained under this framework. There is a lower maximum for the aquaculture and fisheries sector of €120,000 and the agriculture sector of €100,000. Unfortunately at present, the online service with HMRC is not available yet in order to claim the COVID-19 Related Statutory Sick Pay. HMRC will announce when this service will be available.

Conditions an employer must meet in order to be eligible to claim under this scheme are:

• An employer has less than 250 employees on 28th February 2020
• An employer has a PAYE scheme that was set up and commenced on or before 28th February 2020
• The employees they are claiming for were on sick leave due to coronavirus

If employers or charities are connected, once they have in total less than 250 employees on or before 28th February, they can avail of this scheme. All employees such as full-time and part-time employees, employees on zero-hour or flexible contracts or employees with agency contracts are covered under this scheme.

The employer must keep records for the statutory sick payments they wish to claim from HMRC such as:

• National insurance number for each employee being claimed for
• Start and end dates for the period of sick leave the employee could not work
• The reason why the employee could not work
• Details of the qualifying dates in the period the employee could not work

Join BrightPay for a free COVID-19 webinar where we discuss what you need to know about remote working, processing SSP, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and placing employees on furlough leave. 

Places are limited - Click here to book your place now.

Posted byDebbie ClarkeinCoronavirus

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: Which employees are eligible?

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is a temporary scheme open to all UK employers for four months starting from 1 March 2020. It is designed to support employers whose operations have been severely affected by COVID-19.

If you have any employees who have been placed on a leave of absence, they would be considered a furloughed employee. Employers can claim for 80% of furloughed employees’ usual monthly wage cost, up to £2,500 a month, plus the associated Employer NI contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that wage.

All UK companies are eligible: limited companies, sole traders who employ people, LLPs, partnerships, and charities. Employers can use this scheme anytime during this period. Claims can be backdated until the 1 March if applicable, and grants will be prorated if your employee is only furloughed for part of a pay period.

Which employees are eligible?

Prior to now, furloughed employees must have been on your PAYE payroll on 28 February 2020, but this has now been extended to 19th March. This brings into scope a large number of people who fell outside the scheme because they had recently changed jobs.

It’s available to all employees on a contract, including:

• full-time employees
• part-time employees
• employees on agency contracts
• employees on flexible or zero-hour contracts

You can claim for employees that were employed as of 19 March 2020 and were on your PAYE payroll on or before that date; this means that you will have made an RTI submission notifying HMRC of a payment to that employee on or before 19 March 2020. For employees that were employed as of 28 February 2020 and on payroll (i.e. an RTI submission was sent to HMRC) and were made redundant or stopped working for you after that, and before 19 March, they can also qualify for the scheme if you re-employ them and put them on furlough.

A business may need to furlough all employees if it has temporarily closed down, as in hospitality or non-food retail. However, you do not need to place all your employees on furlough. You can choose to furlough a group of employees, whilst key workers continue to work, or to rotate groups between furloughing and working. 

However, those employees who you do place on furlough cannot undertake work for you. This scheme is only for employees who are not working. While on furlough, an employee cannot undertake work for or on behalf of the organisation, but if their contract of employment permits, they may take on new employment with an alternative employer whilst on furlough.

Even if an employee is working, but on reduced hours, or for reduced pay, again, they will not be eligible for this scheme and you will have to continue paying the employee through your payroll and pay their salary subject to the terms of their employment contract.

• If an employee is on unpaid leave, they cannot be furloughed, unless they were placed on unpaid leave after 28 February.

• If an employee has more than one job they can be furloughed for each job. Each job is separate, and the cap applies to each employer individually. Employees can be furloughed in one job and receive a furloughed payment but continue working for another employer and receive their normal wages.

• If an employee is on or plans to take maternity leave, the normal rules apply, and they are entitled to claim SMP. The same applies if the employee qualifies for adoption, paternity or shared parental pay.

• Employees who are unable to work because they have caring responsibilities resulting from COVID-19, for example, employees that need to look after children, can be furloughed.

When calculating claim values for directors of owner-managed companies you can only consider the salary that has been subject to PAYE, not any dividends paid to those directors. They are essentially furloughing themselves, and the understanding is that they do no income-generating work for their business while on furlough, but they can continue to run the business from a statutory perspective, for example preparing their accounts and returns. This also applies to salaried individuals who are directors of their own personal service company (PSC).

Furlough Pay or SSP?

You can claim back from both the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the SSP rebate scheme for the same employee but not for the same period of time. When an employee is on furlough, you can only reclaim expenditure through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and not the SSP rebate scheme. Likewise, if a non-furloughed employee becomes ill, or needs to self-isolate or shield themselves, then you might qualify for the SSP rebate scheme, enabling you to claim up to two weeks of SSP per employee.

Furloughed employees retain their statutory rights, including their right to Statutory Sick Pay. This means that furloughed employees who become ill must be paid at least Statutory Sick Pay (subject to them meeting the eligibility criteria). It’s up to the employer to decide whether to move these employees onto SSP or to keep them on furlough, at their furloughed rate.

• If a furloughed employee who becomes sick and is moved onto SSP, employers can no longer claim for the furloughed salary. Employers are required to pay SSP themselves, although they may qualify for a rebate for up to 2 weeks of SSP.

• If employers keep the sick furloughed employee on the furloughed rate, they remain eligible to claim for these costs through the furloughed scheme.

If an employee has a condition which makes them extremely vulnerable and received a letter from the NHS, they are strongly advised to shield themselves. Shielding is in place to protect extremely vulnerable people from coming into contact with coronavirus. Employers can claim for furloughed employees who are shielding, if they are unable to work from home and you would otherwise have to make them redundant. This also applies to those who need to stay home with someone who is shielding.

Furlough Periods

An employee can be furloughed for a minimum period of three consecutive weeks. When they return to work, they must be taken off furlough. Employees can be furloughed multiple times, but each separate instance must be for a minimum period of 3 consecutive weeks.

The scheme was originally available for a maximum of three months from 1 March, but this has since been extended to four months. The individual could remain furloughed even after the scheme ends, but in this instance, the employer would not have any grant funding to cover their wages. Depending on your circumstances, it may be necessary to consider termination of employment (redundancy). Grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments.

Join BrightPay for a free COVID-19 webinar where we discuss what you need to know about remote working, processing SSP, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and placing employees on furlough leave. Places are limited - Click here to book your place now.

Posted byRachel HynesinCoronavirus

Details of what an Employer needs to Claim for Furlough Employees

HMRC has announced that the online portal or service for employers to make claims relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is planned to be launched on 20th April 2020. In order to process the claim employers must have:

• A PAYE scheme that was created and commenced on 28th February 2020
• Enroll for HMRC’s PAYE Online service
• Have a UK bank account

Employers will need the following for the claim:

• Employer PAYE reference
• Self-Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference or Corporation Tax Unique Taxpayer Reference or Company Registration Number
• Contact name and number
• Bank account details – sort code and account number
• The number of furloughed employees
• Names for all furloughed employees
• National Insurance numbers for all furloughed employees
• Payroll or works numbers for all furloughed employees
• Dates for the furloughed period – start and end date
• Amount for the claim (per the minimum length of furloughing of 3 consecutive weeks)

An employee that was furloughed has to be on furlough leave for a minimum of 3 weeks in a row in order to be eligible under the reclaim scheme. Employees may have been placed on furlough leave multiple times but each period has to be a minimum of 3 weeks in a row.

The amount the employer is coming to claim from HMRC must be calculated by the employer. They may use records from their payroll software to help ascertain the amount of the claim. Where employees were already placed on furlough leave claims can be backdated until 1st March. Authorised agents that have the capacity to act on behalf of their clients for PAYE matters will be able to claim on behalf of their clients. But agents with permission to file only and payroll bureaus will not have the ability to access this service on behalf of their clients. But file only agents may have to assist their clients in order to be able to make the claim and are being encouraged by HMRC to help where they can.

HMRC will check each claim made for each employer and if the employer fulfils the criteria for the scheme then payment will be made by HMRC into the UK bank account by BACs transfer. HMRC reserves the right to audit any employers’ claim under this scheme.

Posted byDebbie ClarkeinHMRC

Online HMRC Service for Reclaiming Wages under Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

HMRC has announced that the online portal or service for employers to make claims relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is planned to be launched on 20 th April 2020. HMRC have advised that employers will only be able to register their claims online and no claim can be made by telephone. This claim is for employers that have furloughed their employees and can make a claim for 80% of furloughed employees’ pay up to a maximum of £2,500 per month per employee.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) is a scheme the government introduced because of the corona virus pandemic in order to give financial support to businesses and employees. Under this scheme all employers, regardless of size or business sector, can claim from HMRC a payment for 80% of the wage costs for employees that were furloughed up to a maximum of £2,500 per month per employee. If the employer can afford to top up the additional 20% of the employee’s wages they can pay the employee the additional amount if they wish.

It has been advised that in order to claim employers will require a National Insurance number for each employee that was furloughed and salary details including National Insurance and pension contribution details for employers to calculate the amount they can claim under this scheme.

Authorised agents that have the capacity to act on behalf of their clients for PAYE matters will be able to claim on behalf of their clients. But agents with permission to file only and payroll bureaus will not have the ability to access this service on behalf of their clients. But file only agents may have to assist their clients in order to be able to make the claim and are being encouraged by HMRC to help where they can.

HMRC have advised that employers will be contacted with information and steps to follow on what the employer needs to do around the time that the service is planned to be launched. HMRC are hoping that the first claims will be made within a number of weeks.