Funding support for employees – the latest instalment

First, the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced increased support for jobs and workers where their employer must close due to local Covid restrictions – referred to as JSS Closed. Then, on 22 October, he announced that the government would also pay a greater proportion of the support offered under the general Job Support Scheme.

But like all things Covid-related, the details here may, depending on where you are based, yet vary. So let’s try to help clarify things.

Easy bit first: across the UK, the Self Employed Income Support Scheme will now bring in 40% of past years’ profits. A welcome increase from 20% for those who are self-employed. That bit is easy.

For companies that can remain open, the JSS can now be applied to employees who work just one day per week (reduced to 20% from the original 33% of hours). The worked hours must still be paid for by the employer: but for the balance, the UK government will now cover up to 75% of the time, with the employer required to cover just 5%.

That’s a big shift from the previous 33% that was expected to come from employers and should make it easier to keep many more people on the payroll in the coming months.

As a result of these adjustments, any worker of a business based in England, who is placed on JSS, should earn at least 73% of their full-time equivalent earnings, up to a cap of £2,100 per month. Employees of businesses based in Tier 3 zones in England will also be able to apply for Universal Credit, in addition to JSS, meaning they could receive up to 80% of the FTE earnings, (or the cap).

That’s the position for now. But for businesses outside England, there may yet be a further development, at least in terms of timescales.

The Devolved Governments have been told that they should fund the additional support now promised under JSS from funding that the Chancellor announced several weeks ago.

In Scotland’s case, that funding amounted to £700m. But the level of support envisaged then isn’t what is planned now – and the Devolved Governments don’t yet know what time frame the £700m allocation will be expected to cover. So, for now, the Finance Secretaries in the Devolved Parliaments are lobbying for additional funds or clarity in terms of the time frame. 

If, or when, that comes then we’ll add a further update to our series on JSS.

Until then, if you have any questions, do give us a call.