Check if you can claim the Job Support Scheme Open if your business is still operating
Find out if you’re eligible and how much you can claim to cover the cost of hours your employees have not worked because your business has been impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19).
If your business is still operating but has been impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19), then you may be able to claim through the Job Support Scheme (JSS Open).
JSS Open is a grant payment you’ll use to cover 61.67% of your employee’s wages for hours not worked, up to a total grant cap of £1,541.75 per month. You will also have to contribute 5% of the cost of hours not worked up to £125 per month for each employee.
You’ll still need to deduct and pay the taxes and employee National Insurance contributions (NICs), and pay employer NICs to HMRC on the full amount paid to the employee, including any grant from the scheme. You must report these via PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) to HMRC on or before the contractual pay date. You must also still pay pension contributions in accordance with the applicable pension scheme terms, unless your employee has opted out or stopped saving into their pension. If applicable, Student Loan deductions and the Apprenticeship Levy must also still be paid.
You will need to pay your employees their contracted wage for hours they work. For hours not worked, you will need to pay at least 5% of their reference pay, but are able to top up employees’ wages above this if you wish.
You must have paid the full amount claimed for an employee’s wages to the employee before each claim is made.
Check if you can claim JSS Open
If you’re experiencing reduced business activity due to coronavirus and are eligible for the Job Support Scheme, you may be able to claim the JSS Open grant for open businesses. You will be able to claim if you’re still operating but you have:
- reduced some, or all, of your employees’ hours, but they are still working at least 20% of their usual hours (across a claim period)
- put those employees on a JSS Open temporary working agreement
If you’re a large employer (250 or more employees) you’ll also need to complete a financial impact test to show you that you are experiencing reduced business activity due to coronavirus.
You do not need to have claimed the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to be eligible to claim the Job Support Scheme.
Employees you can claim for
You can claim for employees on any type of contract (including zero-hours and temporary contracts) who:
- were employed by you on 23 September 2020
- you made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment to HMRC, any time from 6 April 2019 up to 23 September 2020
- are working at least 20% of their usual hours across the claim period - as an employer you will decide what activities count as work
- you have agreed and implemented a JSS Open temporary working agreement covering at least 7 consecutive calendar days
An individual is an employee for the purposes of this scheme if you treat them as an employee for Income Tax purposes, regardless of how you treat them for National Insurance purposes.
You can also check how eligibility is affected if you’re claiming for employees with different employment conditions.
Check how different employment conditions affect eligibility
Find out how different employment conditions affect your employee’s eligibility for the Job Support Scheme Open.
If you’re claiming for other types of employees
You can claim a grant for other types of employees as long as you pay them via PAYE.
You can claim for:
- office holders (including company directors)
- salaried members of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)
- agency workers (including those employed by umbrella companies)
- limb (b) workers
- contingent workers in the public sector
- contractors with public sector engagements in scope of IR35 off-payroll working rules
Employees you cannot claim for
Employees who stopped working for you before 23 September 2020
You cannot claim for employees who were not employed by you on 23 September 2020 because you made them redundant or they stopped working for you. This applies even if you later re-hired them.
Employees who are serving a notice period after 23 September 2020
If an employee is on or begins serving a contractual or statutory notice period after 23 September 2020, you will not be able to claim a grant for any days covered by that notice period.
If the contractual or statutory notice is withdrawn then you will only be able to claim for days that take place after the notice has been withdrawn and for which the other eligibility criteria are met.
If an employee begins serving a contractual or statutory notice period during the first 7 days of a JSS Open or JSS Closed temporary working agreement:
- you cannot claim for any days that occurred before the employee was put on notice
- you will not be able to claim a grant for any days covered by the contractual or statutory notice period
Agreeing a JSS Open temporary working agreement
To be eligible for the grant for open businesses, you must have confirmed to your employee in writing (or reached collective agreement with a trade union where the relevant terms are determined by collective agreement) that they have agreed and been put on a JSS Open temporary working agreement. The written agreement must be in place before the temporary working agreement commences. The agreement can be set out in advance of Health Protection Regulations being put in place by a UK government.
You should discuss with your staff and make any changes to employment contracts by agreement. The employee must agree but does not have to provide a written response and you do not need to place all your employees on a JSS Open temporary working agreement.
You must:
- make sure that the agreement is consistent with employment, equality and discrimination laws
- maintain records of the terms of the temporary working agreements for each employee
- keep a record of the written agreement for 5 years
- make the agreement available to HMRC on request
The JSS Open temporary working agreement does not have to prescribe a number of hours for the employee to work, though to be eligible for JSS Open the employee must work at least 20% of their usual hours. This means that:
- the number of hours the employee works can vary over the course of the temporary working agreement
- the JSS Open temporary working agreement can include both normal working days and days spent on unpaid leave – no money can be claimed in respect of days spent on unpaid leave as they do not include any JSS non-worked hours
Decisions around whether to offer a JSS Open temporary working agreement to someone are down to the individual employer.
HMRC will publish a checklist by 6 November to help employers prepare temporary working agreements, this is not mandatory, and you can draw up your own agreement without this.
Temporary working agreement minimum periods
Any JSS Open temporary working agreement you put in place must last for minimum period of 7 consecutive days, and:
- employees can be placed on a JSS Open temporary working agreement multiple times, but each separate instance must be for a minimum period of 7 consecutive days
- if the JSS Open temporary working agreement does not last 7 consecutive days then you cannot claim for any days that were covered by the agreement
- a JSS Open temporary working agreement can span two JSS claim periods and the minimum 7 consecutive days do not all need to be in one claim period
These rules apply unless there is a change in Health Protection Regulations which legally requires your business premises to close. If this happens:
- you can end an employee’s JSS Open temporary working agreement early, even if this means the agreement will last fewer than 7 consecutive days
- you will still be eligible to claim the JSS Open grant for any eligible days that took place up to and including the day your premises was legally required to close
When your employees are on a JSS Open temporary working agreement
While your employee is on a JSS Open temporary working agreement you cannot ask them to do any work for you in hours not worked that:
- makes money for your organisation or any organisation linked or associated with your organisation
- provides services for your organisation or any organisation linked or associated with your organisation
As long as these conditions are met, your employee can:
- take part in training
- volunteer for another employer or organisation
Paying employee and employer taxes and pension contributions
You must still deduct and pay to HMRC the income tax and employee’s National Insurance contributions due from your employees’ pay in the normal way. You must also pay the employer National Insurance contributions due.
This includes pension contributions (both employer contributions and automatic contributions from the employee remain due), unless the employee has opted out or stopped saving into their pension.
Keeping employee rights
Employees still have the same rights at work, including:
- Statutory Sick Pay
- maternity and other parental rights
- rights against unfair dismissal
- redundancy payments
Grants cannot be used to substitute or fund redundancy payments and you cannot claim for days on which the employee was serving a contractual or statutory notice period. HMRC will continue to monitor businesses after the scheme has closed.
Employees working for a different employer
If contractually allowed, your employees are permitted to work for another employer whilst they are on a JSS Open temporary working agreement.
For any employer that takes on a new employee, the new employer should ensure they complete the starter checklist form correctly. If the employee is subject to a JSS Open temporary working agreement from another employment, they should complete Statement C.
Holiday pay
Employees on a JSS Open temporary working agreement continue to accrue leave as per their employment contract.
The employer and employee can agree to vary holiday entitlement as part of the agreement, however almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of statutory paid annual leave each year which they cannot go below.
Employees on a JSS Open temporary working agreement can take holiday during either their working hours or the hours not worked.
Employees should not be placed on a JSS Open temporary working agreement for a period simply because they are on holiday for that period. Working Time Regulations require holiday pay to be paid at the employee’s normal rate of pay or, where the rate of pay varies, calculated on the basis of the average pay received by the employee in the last 52 working weeks (12 weeks in Northern Ireland). Therefore, if the employee takes holiday, the employer should pay their usual holiday pay in accordance with the Working Time Regulations.
Employers will be obliged to pay employees who are on holiday additional amounts over the grant, though will have the flexibility to restrict when leave can be taken if there is a business need and the correct notice is given. If an employee usually works bank holidays then the employer can agree that this is included in the grant payment. If the employee usually takes the bank holiday as leave then the employer would either have to top up their usual holiday pay, or give the employee a day of holiday in lieu.
Find out more information on holiday pay.
Before you claim
You cannot use the online claim service until 8 December 2020.
Before you claim:
- if you’re a large employer (you have 250 or more employees) you will need check if you pass the Financial Impact Test
- you’ll need to complete some steps before you calculate how much you can claim
Contacting HMRC
If you think that there have been mistakes or unreasonable delays caused by HMRC, you can use our complaints process.
Get help online
Use HMRC’s digital assistant to find more information about the coronavirus support schemes.
You can also contact HMRC if you cannot get the help you need online.
We are receiving a very high numbers of calls. Please do not contact HMRC unnecessarily, this will help us to manage our essential public services during these challenging times.
Other help and support
You can watch videos and register for free webinars to learn more about the support available to help you deal with the economic impacts of coronavirus.