Construction & Infrastructure Article
06 October, 2020
The Job Retention Bonus aims to reduce the scope for compulsory redundancies by rewarding employers who retain their furloughed employees. The bonus is a fixed £1,000 one-off taxable payment, payable to the employer, for each eligible employee that was furloughed and kept continuously employed until 31 January 2021. Since the bonus does not need to be paid to the employee, it can be used to assist with company finances, which will be particularly welcome within the construction industry.
An employer can claim the bonus if they have furloughed employees and made an eligible claim for them through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The bonus can also be claimed for individuals who are not employees, such as office holders or agency workers, for whom which a grant was claimed under the CJRS. An employer can still claim the bonus if they make a claim for the same employee through the Job Support Scheme.
In order to qualify for the bonus, the employer must:
To claim the bonus, an employer must pay its employee a minimum of £1,560 (gross) across the following three tax months:
The employer must make at least one payment of taxable earnings (of any amount) in each of the above tax months. The threshold applies regardless of how often employees are paid or any circumstances which reduced the employee's pay, such as statutory or unpaid leave.
The Government has produced helpful examples to demonstrate how employees can meet the minimum income threshold.
In TUPE situations, in order to claim the bonus, the employer must have furloughed and successfully claimed for the transferred individuals under the CJRS, as their new employer. This means that an employer cannot claim the bonus for employees that transfer to them after the CJRS closes on 31 October 2020.
Employers can claim the bonus between 15 February 2021 and 31 March 2021. They will need to have reported all payments made to the employee between 6 November 2020 and 5 February 2021 to HMRC through Full Payment Submissions via Real Time Information (RTI).
In preparation, an employer should ensure that it:
The Government has advised that the guidance will be updated by the end of January 2021 with details on how to access the online claim service.
For more information contact Emma Swan in our Construction & Infrastructure department via email or phone on 01254 222354. Alternatively send any question through to Forbes Solicitors via our online Contact Form.
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