New Job Support Scheme

Thursday 24 September 2020

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has just announced the government’s new Job Support Scheme to top up workers’ wages covering up to two thirds of their hours for the next six months.

The idea is that this scheme will replace Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which is due to end on 31 October 2020. The new Job Support Scheme will begin on 1 November 2020.

Sunak’s hope is that the new scheme will protect workers’ jobs and help employers bring people back to work from furlough rather than make them redundant. The scheme will only support the wages of people in work and will give employers the option to keep people in work on shorter hours.

Employees will have to work at least one third of their usual hours and employers will have to pay for this. Employees will then be paid two thirds of their salary for their remaining hours (the employer and the government will pay one third each). Employees will therefore see a lower take home pay of 77% of their usual salary if they work 33% of their hours.

All small and medium sized firms will be eligible to use the scheme and large firms whose turnover has fallen during the pandemic will also be eligible.

The scheme will run for six months from November. There has been no mention of maximum payments that the government will make or who to apply for the scheme. Details of this will no doubt follow.

If you have any questions about the Job Support Scheme, please email or call our Employment Law team today on 0113 207 0000.