CJRS - FURTHER UPDATE - NOTICE PERIODS CANNOT BE CLAIMED FROM 1 DECEMBER 2020

The CJRS Guidance was updated late on Friday, with a very important change to confirm that an employer cannot claim a grant under the CJRS for any days on or after 1 December 2020 during which the employee was serving a contractual or statutory notice period for the employer, whether by reason of dismissal (such as redundancy) or resignation.

The exact wording is as follows: (full guidance here)

“For claim periods starting on or after 1 December 2020, you cannot claim for any days on or after 1 December 2020 during which the furloughed employee was serving a contractual or statutory notice period for the employer (this includes people serving notice of retirement or resignation). If an employee subsequently starts a contractual or statutory notice period on a day covered by a previously submitted claim, you will need to make an adjustment.”

For periods pre-1 December 2020, the guidance still provides that claims may be made if the employee is serving statutory notice only, but oddly it remains silent on contractual notice, and it is not clear whether furlough grants for contractual notice periods can be claimed from 1 November 2020.

In addition, Treasury Guidance has been issued today for the CJRS extension, which includes:

• formal withdrawal of the CJRS Retention Bonus;
• sets out the calculations for how the CJRS will operate from 1 November 2020 to 31 January 2021, including eligibility agreeing furlough with employees, claim periods, reference pay and hours of work calculations, time-limits for claims and claim periods;
• confirmation that HMRC will publish information about CJRS claimants on the internet, including the name of the employer and a “reasonable indication” of the amount claimed by them under the CJRS;
• claims may not be made for any day that an employee is serving notice between 1 December 2020 and 31 January 2021

If you have any questions about the topics raised in the above article, please contact our Employment experts James Johnson or Alexandra Bullmore.

Please note, all advice and opinion offered in this article are subject to change in line with the latest government advice.