Job Retention Bonus | £1k per employee kept on after furlough

Job Retention Bonus.

Today (8th July 2020) the Chancellor announced the introduction of the Job Retention Bonus.

This is a one-off payment of £1,000 for each employee brought back off the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and who remains continuously employed until 31‌‌‌ ‌January 2021.

To be eligible, employees will need to:

• earn at least £520 per month on average for November, December and January
• have been furloughed at any point and legitimately claimed for under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• have been continuously employed up until at least 31‌‌‌ ‌January 2021.

Salons will be able to claim the bonus from February 2021 (i.e. after your January 2021 PAYE RTI has been submitted).

Mr Sunak said with more than nine million people currently still part of the furlough scheme the new policy could cost the Treasury £9 billion.

More information about this scheme will be available by 31‌‌‌ ‌July and full guidance will be published in the Autumn. In other words, the devil might well be in the detail! But at the moment, it looks a promising additional bit of income for salons.

CJRS v2

Sunak also took the opportunity to confirm that the furlough scheme would definitely finish at the end of its current form “V2” on 31.10.20, saying: “Leaving the furlough scheme open forever gives people false hope that it will always be possible to return to the jobs they had before.”

So basically, you can furlough an employee until the end of October, then need to either bring them back or make them redundant.