The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has today announced the Government’s plans to introduce a new scheme known as the Job Support Scheme to commence from 1st November and lasting for 6 months.
The scheme is introduced as the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (commonly known as furlough) comes to an end, as planned, on 31st October 2020.
We are awaiting further details, however, in summary, the scheme appears to give employers the option of placing employees on shorter working hours rather than making them redundant with the Government contributing to the cost of associated wages.
Employees will need to work at least one third of their normal working hours to qualify under the scheme. The employer and the Government will then share the costs of most of the remaining unworked hours, with the employer paying for one third of those hours, and the Government paying for the second third. The employee forgoes the final third of the unworked hours. The level of the grant will be calculated based upon the employee’s usual salary and will be capped at £697.92 per month.
The scheme will apparently be open to all SME’s along with those larger businesses who can evidence that their turnover has fallen as a result of the effects of Covid-19. All employees will be eligible under the Job Support Scheme including those not previously furloughed.
Further details are provided in the Government’s factsheet accessed by clicking the following link:
We shall continue to update you as and when further details are released and guidance and/or directions are published. In the meantime, HM Treasury have released the following visual to assist in the initial understanding of the scheme:
