The Chancellor announced further measures to help employees and employers in his Summer Statement on 8 July as part of his “Plan for Jobs” speech.

One of the measures announced is directly linked with the current Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which has so far supported over 1 million employers to protect over 9 million jobs. This is now in its second phase of flexible furlough and will begin to wind down and continue to support businesses until October.

In a step designed to reduce the number of people being made redundant over the coming months as CJRS support is gradually withdrawn, the Chancellor has now introduced a Job Retention Bonus to reward and incentivise those employers who successfully bring workers back after being furloughed. This is consistent with the original intentions of CJRS, to keep employees in jobs. The Government will introduce a one-off payment of £1,000 to UK employers for every employee who successfully returns to work.

 There are conditions attached to this as you would expect, and these are:

• The employee remains continuously employed to the end of January 2021; and
• The employees must earn above the Lower Earnings Limit for National Insurance purposes i.e. £520 per month on average between the end of the CJRS and the end of January 2021.

If these conditions are met, the payments will be made from February 2021. We expect to know more of the detail behind this scheme by the end of July.

The CJRS arrangement has been hugely helpful and will continue to support employers during this difficult period, and this announcement is another aid to hopefully help employers get their businesses back to business as usual. As always there are complexities within the operational aspects of these arrangements, and we will continue to update and support clients with these over the months ahead.

Employment support from the Scottish Government

Kate Forbes announced in her ministerial statement on Thursday 9 July £100 million in 2020 for targeted employment support and training to tackle unemployment issues. Full details on how this will be made available for employers and employees is expected soon.