From 1 September HMRC will now pay 70% of usual wages

From 1‌‌ September HMRC will now pay 70% of usual wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 per month for the hours furloughed employees do not work.

What employers need to do now

• Continue to pay furloughed employees 80% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. Employers will need to fund the difference between this and the CJRS grant themselves.
• The caps are proportional to the hours not worked. For example, if an employee is furloughed for half their usual hours in September, employers are entitled to claim 70% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work up to £1,093.75 (50% of the £2,187.50 cap).
• Continue to pay furloughed employees’ National Insurance and pension contributions from your own funds.

Make sure your data is right

It’s important that you provide all the data they need to process claims. Payment of employers’ grants may be at risk or delayed if you submit a claim that is incomplete or incorrect, so HMRC want to help you get this right. They will get in touch if they see any employee data missing from previous claims.

Fraudulent claims

HMRC have started to investigate CJRS claims where fraud is suspected. They will be paying particular attention to claims that differ from the PAYE data they hold and where they have received reports of fraud. Employees are encouraged to report their employer if they have reason to believe that they are abusing the scheme. They can do this anonymously if they prefer. For more information go to GOV‌.UK and search ‘report fraud to HMRC’.