The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will be extended by a further month, to the end of April 2021. Mr Sunak has also confirmed that the current level of grants will be maintained until the end of the Scheme.
Under the plans announced at the end of October, there was to have been a review of the grants payable in January 2021. Now there is certainty that the Government will continue to pay 80% of furloughed employees’ normal wages (subject to a cap) for unworked hours until the Scheme ends. So, for the remainder of the Scheme, employers will only be required to pay National Insurance Contributions and pension contributions for normal hours not worked. They will of course continue to be liable for the full contractual wages, plus NICs and pension contributions, for hours worked by furloughed employees.
The eligibility criteria will remain unchanged and these changes will apply across the whole of the UK.
The Chancellor has also announced that businesses will now be given until the end of March to access the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme. These had been due to close at the end of January.
The Government will be providing a “further update on wider Covid-19 economic support” at the Budget on 3 March. As the press release notes, perhaps a little optimistically: "extending the CJRS until the end of April gives businesses certainty well ahead of the 45 day redundancy notice period, with Budget setting out the next phase of support more than 45 days before the new end date of the scheme."