Latest CJRS claim figures

In April 2020, the chancellor Rishi Sunak, spoke to the UK, offering a package which would result in millions of UK workers to continue in employment and receive 80% (capped at £2,500 per month) of their usual pay on the proviso that they were furloughed.

Qualifying employers who placed their employees on furlough, would be able to access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and claim back a grant which would cover the cost of this, as well as the associated National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and pension costs (where applicable). The scheme – which by all reports has been considered a success - went live on 20 April with employers receiving their grants 6 days later. On 27 May 2020, the BBC reported that 8.4 million workers are now covered by the CJRS, with the claim costs rising to £15 billion.

On 13 May 2020, the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) was launched with 2.3 million eligible workers making claims, worth £6.8 billion. This scheme differs in many ways from CJRS and furlough, however regarding the grant, those that make the claim are paid in a single instalment which covers three months and amounts to the average monthly profits on the previous tax years. But just like the CJRS grant, it equates to 80% of those profits, capped at £2,500 per month.

When the CJRS was announced, it was only intended to last until the end of May 2020, covering a three-month period. It was later extended to June 2020, however in recent weeks, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, announced that the scheme will now run until October 2020. He confirmed that the scheme will continue to provide the same level of earnings, however, from August 2020, government will be asking those that claim to ‘start sharing’ the cost of the scheme. The current rules around furlough and current guidance will remain unchanged until this point.

We currently wait in anticipation of further news and information about the changes to CJRS and the effects it will have on processing payments to those that are furloughed as well as to future claims via the scheme.