Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme 2020-05-18
2020-05-18
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Questions & Answers
Q1
Direct Answer
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Context
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme's eligibility criteria and its impact on workers not registered with HMRC before a certain date.
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?
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.
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Q2
Direct Answer
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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.
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.
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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