Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

(asked on 10th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of a backdated furlough scheme for people who were denied furlough by their employer.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 16th November 2020

In light of the changing path of the virus, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended until the end of March 2021 for all parts of the UK. People employed and on payroll on 30 October will be eligible, and neither the employer nor the employee needs to have previously claimed or have been claimed for under CJRS to make a claim under the extended CJRS, if other eligibility criteria are met. If employees were employed as of 23 September 2020 and were made redundant or stopped working for their employer prior to 30 October 2020, they can also qualify for the scheme if their employer re-employs them. This will ensure that there is no gap in support.

The furloughing of staff through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is a voluntary arrangement entered at the employers’ discretion and agreed by employees. That means it is not for the Government to decide whether an individual firm should put its staff on furlough or take its staff off furlough. That is a decision for the employer, in consultation with the employee.

Where firms make the decision that they cannot retain?all of?their staff over the longer run, the Government is ensuring that those looking for work are supported. A package of measures in the Plan for Jobs will help people find work by significantly increasing help offered through Jobcentres and providing individualised advice through the National Careers Service. The Government?has also launched?the Kickstart Scheme, a £2 billion fund to create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people.

Temporary welfare measures announced in March will also benefit new and existing claimants. These include the £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element, and a nearly £1 billion increase in support for renters through increases to the Local?Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants.

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