Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

(asked on 15th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will extend the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to publicly funded workers who are not critical workers but cannot work from home where the worker has (a) childcare responsibilities and (b) health conditions.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 20th January 2021

The Coronavirus Job Retention scheme (CJRS) has been available to the employers of anyone who has been unable to work, including from home, due to caring responsibilities arising from COVID-19, such as caring for children who are at home as a result of school and childcare facilities closing, or caring for a vulnerable individual in their household.

If someone is clinically extremely vulnerable, they are encouraged to talk to their employer as soon as possible to discuss and agree options. The CJRS is available to all employers and employees providing they meet the eligibility criteria, and this includes the clinically extremely vulnerable.

The Government does not expect the CJRS to be widely used by public sector organisations, as most public sector employees have continued to provide essential public services or contribute to the response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Where employers receive public funding for staff costs, and that funding is continuing, the Government expects employers to use that money to continue to pay staff in the usual fashion; and correspondingly not to furlough them through the CJRS. This also applies to non-public sector employers who receive public funding for staff costs.

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