Self Employed Income Support Scheme –

You have until 13^th July 2020 to claim the first Grant.  The scheme is being extended and if you’re eligible for the second and final grant, and your business has been adversely affected on or after 14 July 2020, you’ll be able to make a claim from 17 August 2020 up to October 2020.

If you need any assistance, please contact Ian Wilson on 01254 927 961

The scheme currently allows you to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering 3 months’ worth of profits, and capped at £7,500 in total.

Find out more about the extension to the scheme.

You must make the claim yourself. Your tax agent or adviser must not claim on your behalf as this will trigger a fraud alert, and you will have to contact HMRC. This will cause a significant delay to you receiving your payment.

HMRC  – You can start to flexibly furlough eligible employees from 1 July onwards.
From 1 July, you can claim a more flexible grant for any employee you have previously received a CJRS grant for, and who now returns to work on reduced hours. You can also continue to claim for employees who stay fully furloughed.
You can find guidance on eligibility and how to claim for flexibly furloughed employees by searching for ‘Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV.UK.
What you need to do next
· claim for periods ending on or before 30 June, by 31 July – this is the last date you can make those claims
· agree the hours and shift patterns that you want your employees to work from 1 July.
· pay your employees’ wages for the time they’re in work and apply for a job retention scheme grant to cover the remainder of their usual hours for which they are still furloughed
· claim for further furlough periods as needed – the first time you will be able to make a claim for days in July will be 1 July.
What to do if you have overclaimed
Some employers have contacted us to let us know that they have claimed too much. If this applies to you, then all you need to do is tell us when you next claim so you can pay it back. You will be asked when making your claim whether you need to adjust the amount to take account of a previous error. Your new claim amount will be reduced to reflect this. You do not need to take any other action but should keep a record of this adjustment for six years.
If you’ve made an error in a previous claim but do not plan to submit further claims, you need to contact us to let us know, so that we can tell you how to repay the money.
Claiming for 100 or more employees?
Please use our new template to claim for periods starting on or after 1 July to ensure your claim is processed quickly and successfully.
You can find this template by searching ‘download a template if you’re claiming for 100 or more employees through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV.UK.
Updated guidance on military reservists
Our guidance now confirms you can furlough an employee who is a military reservist returning to work following a period of mobilisation ending after 10 July – even if they haven’t been furloughed before. Search for ‘Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ on GOV.UK to find out more.
Paying your employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and pension contributions
A condition of the CJRS grant is that you pay the related PAYE tax, NICs and pension contributions due on wages. Until 31July you can continue to claim these for the hours the employee is on furlough. From 1 August employers will no longer be able to claim for NICs and pension contributions.
If you think you may struggle to pay your PAYE tax and/or NICs from August, please contact HMRC as soon as possible, before they start action to recover the unpaid debt. They may be able to give you time to pay.

Parents on statutory maternity and paternity leave who return to work in the coming months will be eligible for the government’s furlough scheme even after the 10 June cut-off date, the Treasury has announced

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been extended until October, with new flexibilities introduced from 1 July allowing furloughed employees to return to work part-time.

The government previously announced that to enable the introduction of part-time furloughing, and support those already furloughed back to work, claims from July onwards will be restricted to employers currently using the scheme and previously furloughed employees. This means people must be on the furlough scheme by 10 June.

However, the Treasury has now confirmed that parents on statutory maternity and paternity leave who return to work in the coming months after a long period of absence will be permitted to be furloughed.

This applies to people on adoption leave, shared parental leave, and parental bereavement leave, but only in circumstances where they work for an employer who has previously furloughed employees.

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: ‘When I announced these changes to the furlough scheme last month, I was clear that we wanted to do this in a fair way, that supports people back to work as the country begins to re-open following coronavirus.

‘But for parents returning from leave, their circumstances has meant that they are still in need of support, and I’m pleased that they will be able to receive the financial assistance they and their family will need.’

The CJRS, which has seen one million employers across the UK furlough almost 9m jobs, will close to new entrants on 30 June, with the last three-week furloughs before that point commencing on 10 June.

More details of the change will be included in updated guidance, to be published on 12 June.

2 updates 31 May 2020  – SEISS and Flexible Furlough

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

The Chancellor also announced plans to extend the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) for those people whose trade continues to be, or is newly, adversely affected by COVID-19 (coronavirus). Eligible self-employed people will be able to claim a second and final SEISS grant in August; this will be a taxable grant worth 70% of their average monthly trading profits for three months, paid out in a single instalment and capped at £6,570 in total.

The eligibility criteria for the second grant will be the same as for the first grant. People do not need to have claimed the first grant to claim the second grant: for example, their business may have been adversely affected by COVID-19 (coronavirus) more recently.

Claims for the first SEISS grant, which opened on 13‌‌ May, must be made no later than 13‌‌ July. Eligible self-employed people must make a claim before that date to receive the first SEISS grant (a taxable grant of 80% of their average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering 3 months’ worth of profits, and capped at £7,500 in total). So far, we’ve seen over 2.3 million claims worth £6.8 billion.

It’s really important to note that as with the first SEISS grant, the eligible individual must make the claim themselves. If you attempt to make a claim on behalf of your client, this will trigger a fraud alert and will result in significant delays to payment. However, you can help to prepare your clients by ensuring they have the relevant information ready. The claims process is simple: we will calculate the amount of self-employment support individuals will receive, they don’t need to do this themselves.

More information about the second SEISS grant will be available on GOV.‌‌UK on 12‌‌ June.

In the meantime, please help us reach those self-employed people who could benefit from a SEISS grant now, by encouraging anyone you think might be eligible for the first grant but hasn’t yet made a claim to do so before 13‌‌ July.

More details about the extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

Flexible furloughing

From 1‌‌July 2020, you’ll have the flexibility to bring previously furloughed employees back to work part-time – with the government continuing to pay 80% of wages for any of their normal hours they do not work up until the end of August. This flexibility comes a month earlier than previously announced to help people get back to work.

You can decide the hours and shift patterns that your employees will work on their return and you will be responsible for paying their wages in full while working. This means that employees can work as much or as little as your business needs, with no minimum time that you can furlough staff for.

Any working hours arrangement that you agree with your employee must cover at least one week and be confirmed to the employee in writing. When claiming the CJRS grant for furloughed hours, you will need to report and claim for a minimum period of a week. You can choose to make claims for longer periods such as on monthly or two weekly cycles if you prefer. You will be required to submit data on the usual hours an employee would be expected to work in a claim period and actual hours worked.

If your employees are unable to return to work, or you do not have work for them to do, they can remain on furlough and you can continue to claim the grant for their full hours under the existing rules.

Employer contributions

From August, the government grant provided through the job retention scheme will be slowly tapered.

• in June and July, the government will pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 as well as employer National Insurance (ER NICs) and pension contributions for the hours the employee doesn’t work – employers will have to pay employees for the hours they work
• in August, the government will continue to pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 but employers will pay ER NICs and pension contributions – for the average claim, this represents 5% of the gross employment costs that they would have incurred if the employee had not been furloughed
• in September, the government will pay 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay ER NICs, pension contributions and 10% of wages to make up 80% of the total up to a cap of £2,500
• in October, the government will pay 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay ER NICs, pension contributions and 20% of wages to make up 80% of the total up to a cap of £2,500
• the cap on the furlough grant will be proportional to the hours not worked.

If you are a smaller employer, some or all of your employer NIC bills will be covered by the Employment Allowance, so you should not be significantly impacted by that part of the tapering of the government contribution.

Around a quarter of CJRS monthly claims relate to wages that are below the threshold where employer NICs and auto enrolment contributions are due, and so no employer contribution will be required for these furloughed employees in August.

Important dates

It’s important to note that the scheme will close to new entrants from 30‌‌June. From this point onwards, you will only be able to furlough employees that you have furloughed for a full three-week period prior to 30‌‌June.

This means that the final date that you can furlough an employee for the first time will be 10‌‌June for the current three-week furlough period to be completed by 30‌‌June. Employers will have until 31‌‌July to make any claims in respect of the period to 30‌‌June.

Guidance and support

Further support for employers and agents on how to calculate claims with this extra flexibility will be available by 12‌‌ June, including webinars and detailed online guidance. For information about how to claim, go to GOV‌.‌‌UK and search ‘Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’. Please do not call us for more information, everything you need to know about this scheme will be published online on GOV‌.‌.

Protect yourself from scams

Stay vigilant about scams, which may mimic government messages as a way of appearing authentic and unthreatening. Search ‘scams’ on GOV‌.‌‌UK for information on how to recognise genuine HMRC contact. You can also forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599.

I hope this information helps and supports your business, and we’ll continue to keep you updated on scheme developments over the coming weeks.

Latest: 12.May 2020

Chancellor Rishi Sunak made an announcement this afternoon that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will remain open until the end of October.

Meanwhile, look after yourselves, stay safe and best wishes to you all, from the team at Douglass Grange