Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Monday 18 May 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Mary Glindon inquired about new starters and agency staff workers who are ineligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
  • The Chancellor stated that the scheme initially covered those registered with HMRC by 28 February, later extended to those registered by 19 March.
  • Anneliese Dodds raised concerns about the Treasury's potential requirement for employers to pay 40% of employee wages from 1 August under the Job Retention Scheme.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Mary Glindon Lab Morpeth
Taxation Employment
Context

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme's eligibility criteria and its impact on workers not registered with HMRC before a certain date.

Question

New starters not registered with HMRC before 19 March and agency staff workers find themselves in limbo when it comes to accessing the job retention scheme. What more can the Chancellor do to help these workers now facing hardship?

Answer from The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

When I announced the scheme, we said that those who were on real time information and had notified HMRC on 28 February would be eligible. That covers 29.5 million workers in this country. We found a way to extend that to 19 March—the day before the announcement was made. This protects the taxpayer against fraud and enables as many of those people to be included as possible. It brought another 230,000 people into the scheme. The scheme now covers close to 30 million workers.

Answered
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Q2 Anneliese Dodds Labour (Co-op) Oxford East
Economy Employment
Context

Labour's concern about the Treasury's potential plan to ask employers to pay a significant portion of employee wages under the JRS from 1 August.

Question

Labour supported the introduction of the furlough scheme and has called for it to become more flexible. However, according to press reports, the Treasury is considering asking all employers to pay 40% of employee wages on the JRS from 1 August, which risks a massive spike in job losses.

Answer from The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

As I think the shadow Chancellor has acknowledged previously, we are in deep consultation with both unions and business groups to ensure that we get the design right for the second part of this scheme. It is right both for the economy and indeed for the taxpayer to ask employers to make a contribution to paying the wages of their employees. They will have the benefit of flexibility in furloughing to help offset that.

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