CJRS eligibility from May
If you have employees who have previously been ineligible for the CJRS, as they were not on your payroll on 30 October 2020, they may be eligible for periods from 1 May 2021 onwards.
From May you will be able to claim for eligible employees who were on your PAYE payroll on 2 March 2021. This means you must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying HMRC of earnings for that employee.
You and your employees do not need to have benefitted from the scheme before to make a claim, as long as you meet the eligibility criteria.
For more information on eligibility visit GOV.UK.
Changes to CJRS claims for variable pay from May
For periods from 1 May, when calculating the average wages for employees who are not on a fixed salary, you should no longer includes period of:
- Statutory Sick Pay related leave
- family related statutory leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of Statutory Sick Pay or family related leave
However, if your employee was on one of these types of leave for the entire period used to calculate their average wages, then you should continue to include the days and wages related to that date.
For more information on variable pay calculations, go to GOV.UK.
Frequently asked questions about the CJRS
You can find everything you need to know about the CJRS on GOV.UK by searching 'Job Retention Scheme'.