On the 2nd of October, HMRC released further guidance in respect of the Job Retention Bonus offered during the summer. The scheme starts in 2021 and you cannot claim the Job Retention Bonus until 15 February 2021. The claim will be made through an online claim service on GOV.UK. which will be confirmed by the end of January.
The Job Retention Bonus is a £1,000 one-off taxable payment to the employer for each eligible employee that you furloughed and kept continuously employed until 31 January 2021 and the claim period will be between 15 February 2021 and 31 March 2021. This will be an employers’ bonus and will not be required to be paid to an employee.
You can claim the bonus if you’re an employer who has furloughed employees and made an eligible claim for them through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Your employee must have been eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant for you to be eligible for the bonus. The guidance however also confirms that you can still claim the bonus if you make a claim for that employee through the Job Support Scheme, the guidance for which is still to be published.
You can claim for employees that:
- you made an eligible claim for under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- you kept continuously employed from the end of the claim period of your last Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim for them, until 31 January 2021
- are not serving a contractual or statutory notice period for you on 31 January 2021 (this includes people serving notice of retirement)
- you paid enough to the employee in each relevant tax month and enough to meet the Job Retention Bonus minimum income threshold
More details can be found here
